THE DIFFERENCE
Elizabeth
Zelvin
the difference between a hookup
nowadays
and what we called a one-night
stand
is that the girls we were back
then
were always looking for love
yes, every single time we hoped
that moment of connection had to
lead
to more, we wanted more, we wanted
love
we didn’t care which boy
bestowed it
never noticed he had none to give
the boy I’d flirted with
for weeks at the office
finally snagged at a weekend party
on the rooftop under the stars
said Get out the moment
it was over
ignored me at the copier on Monday
the boy in the cornfield on the
camping trip
after mixing grain and grape and
hop
a mistake I never made again
we worked together for the next
two years
he would never meet my eyes
never spoke to me in all that time
the boy who said Everything
human is natural to me
the Roman poet Terence, more correctly
Nothing human is alien to me
more comfortable quoting the classics
to justify himself than asking
my permission
yet another way to ignore No
my granddaughters are young women
now
joyous, beautiful, full of life
rich in women friends
so far treat the boys they know
as buddies
both their parents were late bloomers
please, God, let my girls skip
the hookup phase
fly, when they’re ready,
straight to love
Elizabeth
Zelvin is the author of two books of poetry, I Am the Daughter (1981),
and Gifts and Secrets (1999), and recipient of a CAPS Award for Poetry
from the New York State Council on the Arts. A third volume, The Old Lady
Shows Her Mettle, is on the way. During the Second Wave of the women’s
movement, her work was widely published in feminist and Jewish women’s
journals. Her poems currently appear in Yellow Mama and other journals.
Liz has also published seven novels and more than sixty short stories,
including the Bruce Kohler Mysteries and the Mendoza Family Saga.
