Shaking the grains
of salt like rain
over my fries
I bite into a burger
of my free order
and find a sizzling fly
You may laugh
but it’s a little rough
when dandruff
is white icing
on a blueberry pie
A free meal
is a risky deal
and I tell you no lie
once I found there
a metre hair
I choke and nearly die
I pull up to the counter
complain to the waiter
who couldn’t give a jack
just a dingy diner
at the mall
with free meals
and worse of all
you can’t ask
for money back

blind diner windows
scribbling absentmindedly
dog-eared carte du jour

I sit in a little pocket within the diner, a booth with a window overlooking the highway. I'm waiting for my ice cream shake to come to room temp just enough to slurp through a straw. I notice a young man with a green cardigan chasing a young lady in a red sweatsuit on the highway. It feels as if I'm watching an episode of Tom and Jerry. I giggle. The young lady removes her sweater and tosses it towards incoming cars. Cars begin to screech through the thick glass.

"******!"

My shake is now ***** water, which I chug in a gulp. I then look out the window to notice that traffic is back to normal. I wonder if she abandoned the sweater or the young man.

I feel like we are in
an old Hayao Miyazaki movie.
I suspect we are hand-drawn people
hunched over hand-spun milkshakes from a classic American diner
like Culver's burgers and fries.

I imagine the real me
has fallen asleep on a couch
in front of a microwaved dinner
somewhere in the distant future.
I think I was watching
the snow
fall outside the window
like static on a TV screen.

I could have been watching
the same Saturday morning
on loop,
walking in frames
to the same diner we've been going to since you were five.

There, we meet for breakfast
by the window.
Your hand is drawn wearing a gold wedding ring. I smile behind a silver beard.
Though it's hard to recognize our faces,
we say things that sound familiar

something about
how our favorite
Hayao Miyazaki movies
illustrated the passage of
time
through the eyes of a child

You order a kids meal
with a milkshake
in a classic re-enactment of
the days
I thought would
never end.

You sip your coffee in a nearby diner.
The place is empty.
It is too cold outside for wandering,
even to familiar places.

Part of you is still numb,
Historic wounds still holding sway.
You sip your coffee in a strange kind of meditation,
waiting for the feelings to break like river ice.

my roman nose did not
fit the cupboard womb
as I stared at
the silhouette
of a ketchup stain on  
a breakfast table
raw burger meat,
ripe debutantes
all bathed in
glycerin and
self-destruction
waiting for teeth
or the occasional knife
(chaining themselves
to trees
whose seeds mostly
wander)

I came here alone
(use me and squeeze me)
the insides of the
shrinking constitution,
the demure dissident
such a thrill
to smear my guts
all over the newspapers
to see the visions
of the
ink so
honeysuckle
intertwined


I pressed
against
the greasy
diner table
arms crossed
to hide my face behind
a promise to be
waiting for you
open mouthed
and mute
chiaroscuro, blind

lingering fingers
drifting eyes
parting away
from some
run down town
and into this diner
our fate awaits

The diner has lots of shakes
Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry
But none of them have the power
To cure my broken heart

Rockhoppers cry in hunger
Like you in that diner
A plate of fish, raw and cold
Was all that appeased you

Like you in that diner
Candlelight burning bright
Was all that appeased you
Lusting for more

Candlelight burning bright
Could not satisfy your gluttony
Lusting for more
Did the fish taste good?

Could not satisfy your gluttony
A plate of fish, raw and cold
Did the fish taste good?
Rockhoppers cry in hunger