The old man wears a smart suit and gloats

knowing the ladies speak of him often

"Yes, his conversations are quite clever,"

one says to another

He swirls his wine and swallows it whole

as if it were a cheap rendition of earlier gratitudes

(so often paid for by maidens who serve him)

"Don't laugh," says one woman to another

as she purchases another round

"The joke, I think, is on us."