The Cocktail Party

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Squeezed together
with drinks and nuts
you have to talk,
circulate with ease,
discuss the weather,
and try to please.
You open yourself
to a person
you like best.
He or she looks
over your shoulder
to see who is next.
We keep sniffing
each ohter,
all smiles and laughter
trying to find out
what the other person
is after.
It is a marvellous way
to get to know people
without really getting
to know them
at all.

This is a poem from Ivar Ditlef-Nielsen's Selected Poems (Poelosophy).