cause and effect

it was an ordinary
everyday conversation
routine almost
between two friends.
until you forgot your
extraordinary,
everyday, reliable restraint,
and called me sweetheart.

i was simply walking,
listening to you
gloat over conquests
of the female kind,
of the workplace kind,
when you changed
the equation between us,
and called me sweetheart.

an innocuous looking,
boring old telephone
pole, was listening in.
it was taken aback
unhappy, unwilling
to take this sudden change.
it took one surprised step,
and tapped me on my forehead.