It’s her birthday, but she’s wearing a drab, striped dress,
two shades of gray,
and when she speaks she sounds as somber
as her outfit projects.

He commands minutiae,
possesses a mundane worldliness
that enables him to identify brands of unfiltered sake
but not transform a night with them.

He seems oblivious that her praise of this latest bottle
was a stark statement of fact,
joyless.

She will leave him soon for a dynamic man,
outgrow her willingness to gamble
and marry an architect.