April 1996


Reserved.

(It's what they say you are, you know.)
(rí-zûrvd') --adj.
(It's an adjective, that's how they pronounce it.
1. Held in reserve; kept back or set aside.
(It can mean that, but that's for restraunts. They don't mean you're a table when they say you're reserved.)
2. Marked by self-restraint in action and expression.
(That's what they're talking about.
When they say
You're reserved.
Why
Don't you
loosen up, party, smell the flowers, have some fun, smell the flowers and the coffee, shake a leg, you know what I mean?
I guess not.
You stand there
Motionless, mostly.
Very silent.
Very sad looking.
What are you, repressed?
If someone laughed
Would it scare you?
Maybe you'd just kind of shatter into little pieces of pin-striped suit
And rigid facial expressions.
Interact a little.
You're part of this world too, you know
If you want to be.
I guess
What I'm saying is
That you're a lot
Like my kitchen table.)

© Lorrin Nelson
[other pieces]
[lnelson3@swarthmore.edu]