Jenifer Takes Off Her Bra
by Paul Smith

1. First she takes off her sweater
2. She is looking me straight in the eye
3. From where she sits in front of the window
4. Overlooking the Square
5. There are some flimsy curtains I hung up
6. To keep anybody from looking in
7. Her arms cross, making an X
8. Fastens her fingers to the bottom of the sweater
9. And she pulls up
10. Revealing her maiden formed beauty
11. Her smile is fixed either on me
12. Or a point behind me, way in the distance
13. Either is fine
14. It’s late afternoon
15. A breeze pushes the curtains behind her
16. She gets up from the hardback chair
17. She reaches behind her
18. Her arms, hid, make another X
19. Unfasten those little clips she has back there
20. And they come loose
21. The bra relaxes
22. The left strap falls off her shoulder as she
23. Tilts to that side
24. Then the right
25. Now she is right in front of me
26. Her hands cupping her covered breasts
27. Still holding my gaze
28. She knows what it is to be hungry
29. And then her hands drop with the bra in them
30. Street sounds fill the apartment
31. From where I left the window open
32. This is all that’s left to hope for
33. I reach for my wallet in back
34. My left arm making half an X
35. Retrieving it from my hip pocket
36. Find Ben Franklin with that same sly smile he always has
37. And behind him take out Andrew Jackson with that puzzled look
38. Because this transaction is not as robust as it once was
39. And hand it to her
40. Taking it, her smile evolves into something
41. Like the smirk on Andrew’s face
42. Not disdain, closer to resignation
43. But with a modicum of gratitude
44. As she puts on her clothes and walks out
45. The car sounds from Logan Square
46. Make the afternoon feel like there is life in it still
47. Touching the chair she sat in I notice
48. It’s still warm from her peculiar female thermodynamics
49. So I sit down, my libido piggybacking a ride
50. On the incandescence where her ass was
51. With that heat and that from the window….
52. The late afternoon is not that bad
53. Even Old Hickory might be smiling