The boy who gives away
chocolate samples at the mall
looks forward to visits from the girl
who sells tickets at the movie theater.
He likes to see her smile
and know he made it happen,
or anyway the candy did,
and he hopes she thinks
of him later as she licks
chocolate off her fingers,
though when she tells him
there’s no actual butter in
the theater’s so-called buttered popcorn,
he wonders if she’s saying
there’s nothing real between them.
He ponders this as he sits
alone in the dark.