With one foot in and one foot out the door
I'm always one to keep another waiting.
Now the coffee's cold and I'm left contemplating
if anything at all's worth waiting for.
Why let this moment drown in expectation?
Now is not the time and we both know
to ask for any sort of explanation
is to ask for more than you or I would owe.
Half past one my foolish heart still races
every time the entry doorbell chimes.
This city, home to seven million faces,
could disappoint me seven million times.
This is a loose translation of Mascha Kaléko's 1933 poem "Auf einem Café-Tisch gekritzelt" in the German.