To The Woman Beside Me In Seat 16B

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I resisted the urge to touch your foot,

all I know now of dainty—

toes like carrot nibs,

arch like a tiny bridge waiting for me

to cross,

heel caught so loosely

in the net of nylon (how

could delicate be

so caught?),

that knee-high slouched intently

at your flower-stem ankle—

a bouquet of lilies on the hill

of the garden of you.

How you could sleep for hours in this pose

is Zen mystery,

but that poised limb never twitched—

not even when your head

bobbed forward and back, forward

and back like that trick

of the glass bird

rocking

toward one quick kiss of water.

I was that glass of water,

waiting as your yellow hair

nodded closer

and closer.

Waiting to be that sip of rest,

my wrinkled white blouse

your pillow—

and for those seconds

between destinations

I was crowded with comfort;

I was paralyzed with love,

this need to touch.

Cathryn Cofell's first full-length collection, Sister Satellite, was released by Cowfeather Press in August 2013. She'll be launching the book on Friday, October 11, 7:00 p.m., with Moises Villavicencio Barras, another Cowfeather author. Cathryn's work can also be found in six pre-vious chapbooks of poetry and on Lip, a CD of her poems set to the music of Obvious Dog. For more, visit www.cathryncofell.com