Strange Proteins

Or take a closer look?

This guy at a bar
Speaks to me through
Morose, Monday beers
And says, quietly:

"Cheer up, boy. It might
Never happen."
I balk at 'boy,' especially
As he seems my age.

I make the magic glance
The one-sec assessment
And almost run away...
Instead, fascination makes me say -

"Who says it hasn't already?"
Sideways, I see him smile.
"You don't know how true
That is," he chuckles.

Then he looks at me,
Offers a hand to shake...
Shark in human drag.
Hypnotic. Compelling ice.

He watches me order drink.
A man so marbled-flecked
And white; he is so different
It is genetic and fearful.

This being is constructed
Of strange proteins, infernal fibre
And glued by the will
Of predators. I ask:

"What you drinkin'?"
He laughs: "I brought my own.
Protein shakes." Pinky-red
He sips this frothy stuff instead.

Moments shuffled awkwardly by.
I go to speak, but I've spoken my last.
"Let's go," he says. I go.
Smiling, I'm screaming inside.