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an education, IV

—

there's a customer she has often
a regular, every Saturday
(sometimes Friday)
and he always orders the same thing
and she laughs when he comes in
because she has seen him before
and he has seen her before
and they both know what he will say
but she has to ask him anyway
because that's procedure;
and he asks her
am I really that predictable?

she tells him that
she always gets the same thing, too;
and he says
oh, so you are predictable, like me.

a song is playing in the lobby
some song about some man
who never changes;
some man who says he will
always love this one woman
no matter what.

the song ends, and the song after it
is about people who always change;
about some man who
used to love some woman,
but then she changed, so
neither of them are the same.

her coworker asks her if
she is good at biology.
she says, pretty good.
her coworker asks her if
maybe she could tutor him sometime?
and she thinks about
her brother's chemistry homework
and reading to her nephew at night
and that one girl who needed help
on the physics test
but mostly she thinks about
her brother's chemistry homework
and she says, sure
because
(oh, so you are predictable, like me)
she is predictable, too.