I’m walking into the neolithic room
(the exhibits are neolithic; the room is not
the room’s just the place for all the stuff they’ve got:
arrowheads, axes, bones etc
map projectors
that kinda thing)
sandals squeaking
everyone speaking
in respectful tones
shuffling through millennia
with an app on their phones
suddenly
a guard comes up to me
points to the floor
at the painted arrows for
showing
which way you should be going
which is embarrassing
and my face turns hot
but she’s smiling
so I’m guessing
it happens a lot

later

I’m in the museum cafe
cooling off with a frappe
looking for a bin
to chuck my paper napkin in
when the ancient man
at the table next to me
smiles sympathetically
points with his stick
to the square
where
they’ve lined up all their
spare
headless statues
so I bow and say thank you

just
as a big bug
drops from a tree
right in the middle of a table of three
women
who jump up screaming
something so coincident with my leaving
I’m reluctant to go through with it
or it might look like I had something to do with it