Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 1 • Spring 2002 • Poetry

to be a cocktail waitress, you must

Lauren Wheeler

smile a lot

and pretend not to mind

when a man twice your age

or maybe

three times

asks you when you're

getting off because he wants

to take you home with him

so that he can

get off

just keep smiling

and tell him you're married

to a cop

and that she's real mean

and don't expect him

to leave you much

of a tip

Globetrotter Lauren Wheeler was born in Chicago, raised in Miami Beach, did a stint in Ithaca, New York while getting her BA in English Lit from Cornell University, hung out in Berkeley for a little while for the sake of her sanity, lost it all over again in Los Angeles, and is presently living in Oakland. She represented the Mission District at the 1998 National Poetry Slam and Ithaca in 1999. Lauren was also the host of the Tongue & Groove and Re-verse poetry series in Ithaca. She has featured on both coasts and performed the Bay Area dates of 2001's Ignition Tour with Daphne Gottlieb. Lauren may be reached at laurenwheeler@aol.com.

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