across the table

across the table,

irena and her housemate laurie

study for a mid-term

on marx and de tocqueville.

I look up from my book

and see a pile of coins

―four quarters and three dimes―

laurie has placed by her things

―for another cup of tea, perhaps;

for something―and suddenly

I am struck by how like my own

other people’s money is.

like that.

like looking at trees

from a car on a freeway

and suddenly being struck

in the eye by the sun.