Joining the Din
in restaurants, as in life
you walk in and it's all
happening already
-the stories each
at some point
turning on a word
several now reaching
that final place of ah hah
others just extending
the first toe of complication
shown to your seat
sometimes, like tonight
you have the table near the kitchen
so it's pots banging too
and foreign curses
next to the usual
clink of wine glasses
rising and falling among
the sibilants and stops
from tables and tables
of curled tongues
and one has to think
what is it I can add
what shape of word to start
here in this place, with this person
to meet the tenor so varied
strike that note of seriousness, of whim
in this noise of words
to which we each bring
our past store of stories
our old rambling questions
where now how to begin.
—Mary Buchinger Bodwell
____
originally appeared in Buffalo Carp