2/9/11 : 4:08 P.M.

There is a television in the cafe
where I wait for my dinner
and there he is, at a podium.

"Says he's not stepping down,"
the lady at the register comments
as she follows my eye line.

"Yeah," I say. "He's clearly an idiot."

"He wants to get shot," she says,
"They'll shoot him."

"Or destroy the country."
I am watching the tidal wave
of bodies
in Tahrir Square
unfurl as the news hits them,
this real part of the story,
just above the CNN banners
which read:

"MUBARAK WILL NOT STEP DOWN"
and,
smaller,
"Jennifer Hudson to Oprah:
I lost 80 pounds!"

Anderson Cooper takes off his glasses;
he might as well be mopping his brow.

Sinking, something in me.

"Ma'am?" says the
lady at the register.

"Yeah. Yeah. Um.
Can I have a Bavarian Pretzel sandwich, please?"