The Girl with the Birthday Cake

Getting off the bus
she doesn't walk away.

She stays.
Waits.

Was she going to look up?
Give me a glance, a glare?
Her lashes flicker up
but only at the cold metal
of the rumbling mustard bus.

Disappointment.

She crosses the road
into the store
comes out - in her slender arms
with a colourful container for a cake.

A little boy asks,
"Is it your birthday?"
A sad smile,
a half-hearted laugh.

And there walked away,
away from Disappointment,
the saddest girl with a birthday cake.

Was he looking out of the window,
she wondered.
Was she thinking about me,
he wondered.

Or was it all in her head?

And Disappointment rolled away,
like a lost opportunity
of someone who wasn't brave enough to say
You disappoint me.