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Conversations in a Coffee Shop

Why do women hate sex?

he asked the table,

face lit blue by his screen,

thumb flicking through bodies

he’d never satisfy.

Don’t they like pleasure?

 

She tore open

the sugar packet –

a small violence –

spilling diamonds into heat.

 

Stirring.

The spoon hitting the glass

like a metronome

counting down his smallness.

 

She turned her face toward the sun,

eyes closed, smiling –

letting warmth touch her

where he never could.

 

Sweetness dissolving

on her own terms.



BIO

Melissa Elder is a poet from New Jersey. When she's not reading or writing poetry, she's trying to capture it through a lens. She has two collections of published poetry, The Mundane and Nostalgia. A third book, In the Quiet, will be released in the Fall of 2026.

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