Goodbye to All That

Tink’s on E 7th St, closed 2021

The café brims with chatter, tables spilled 
onto the sidewalk. We tilt toward the kitchen,
fighting autumn’s first chill. But we don’t
mind a shiver. We don’t mind anything 
in Manhattan, its name whispered like a prayer. 
While we swoon over novels and regret 
blind dates, the spell hovers:
museums, opera, light the color of longing.

Here we are wise. Love is whatever you want
it to be. God is whoever you want her to be. 
Do we believe ourselves? Wearing vintage rings 
we can’t afford, we clink mimosas, will our way 
into what we hope womanhood means: 
amethyst, Joan Didion, pancakes at noon.
But for now we are questions held on our tongues, 
wearing lipstick named for things we’ve yet to taste.

WHITNEY
RIO-ROSS

Whitney Rio-Ross is the author of thunder makes us (Belle Point Press) and poetry editor for Fare Forward. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Image, ONLY POEMS DAILY, Barely South Review, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Find her at whitneyrioross.com.