Reading the Paper in the Diner
1
At Venus Diner the scones
burst Like loose
loam in my
mouth.
The mountainous counters are muffin-mad. You can use the
honey buns for face mirrors.
You can watch the afternoon turn Chrome-colored in the
parking lot.
2
A
glob of whipped cream sails down my Hot mug of
cappuccino and makes a milky
puddle.
My waitress gathers her black rope of hair into a
goose tail, Wiping the
espresso maker like the head of a just-bathed
baby.
I hear her gum-busy mouth crackling as I read
So you really think he's nice, Barbara?she says.
Oohh yyeess, Barbara says. Why do I wonder who they're talking about?
3
In
Europe, scientists are turning jellyfish genes Into glow-in-the-dark monkeys.
In
El Salvador, a man cries in the
dirt that held his house yesterday. People are digging for his parents' bodies in the mountain mud.
At a
refugee camp in Jordan a
Palestinian with fourteen kids Sells everything from peanuts to diapers at his dry goods shop.
In the
Brooklyn night a girl offers her
tongue to fat
snow slanting in the orange light like drunken
fireflies.
G. Manizone