Dating Divorced Men

I find you premarked, dogeared by someone else,
the same passages that I accent in my rocket yellow highlighter
pop—already underlined.
Like picking up a good used book
for a quiet conversation with an author miles
maybe years away,
I am baffled by the woman
who’s been here before. The narrative is plural.
I am reading the marginalia more than the book itself.
I can’t help but scribble
in the margin—reliable reader?









Xan L. Roberti is the winner of the 2014 New South Poetry Contest, and runner up in the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest 2013. Her memoir Portable Housing was nominated for the Walter Sindlinger Award. She contributes to LitSeen, and lives in San Francisco on a windy hill.