#dining
We learned our love at candlelit tables,
where forks slowed down and voices too,
where time arrived in courses measured
and left us space to see it through.
No neon signs, no need for showing,
just linen, glass, a careful room,
a waiter who knew when to vanish,
a window holding back the gloom.
In western towns where evenings linger,
we practiced how to listen well,
how silence could become a sentence
no menu ever learned to sell.
Between the bread and final sweetness
the future leaned across the plate,
not bold or loud or asking favors,
just patient, knowing how to wait.
These places taught us what love isn't,
not spectacle, not borrowed shine,
but something built in lowered voices
and refilled glasses taking time.
In every song I wrote for living,
in every story told since then,
there's always one more table waiting
to teach us who we were back when.
So let the lists and roses wander,
let February make its case,
we know the truth of love by heart now,
it rhymes with staying, not with haste.
Feb 5
Feb 5, 2026 at 12:15 PM UTC
The dinner table.
It is called what it is despite the use for all meals
starts out with breakfast
the kids get their backpacks from the chairs and go to school.
The dinner table.
Come lunchtime, sandwiches
prepared on its rough tired surface
waiting for the children to come home and enjoy them.
The dinner table.
Now comes dinner,
A place of comfort and good thing
where every expressed meal takes place in the American home.
The dinner table.
Wooden, ovoid piece of furniture located in the formal dining room
such a work of art in yet such a pleasant, morsel-resting masterpiece
a family heirloom often overlooked for its uses.
The dining room is where the family can relax at the universal dining counter for mealtime.
The kitchen is where the food is made and prepared. But tonight, we have other meal plans.
The dinner table.
Let us rest our heads upon its surface and say a prayer of thanks
let us praise the Lord for the food he has blessed us with.
Now let’s eat! This takeout looks delicious!
Jan 31, 2025
Jan 31, 2025 at 8:03 PM UTC
TS Eliot said, “Paris is a strong stimulant.”
It is - but it has nothing on Manhattan.
If Paris is a Café Crème espresso at a café-en-terrasse under the stars.
Manhattan is a ‘Black Tie Bawls’ cocktail at The Crown bar (the skyline!).
We were going to relax - in Manhattan,
instead, keep those seat belts fastened.
Lisa said, one night, “Want to go out for a bit?”
Since then, I’ll admit, our nights have been lit.
We have ten days, and we’ve decided to try every Michelin-starred restaurant we can (there are 68 in NYC). So far, we’ve been to Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin and Per Se. This was Lisa’s idea.
The food is delicious - if you like a corn-flake with something on it or a steak the size of a bouillon cube ($250 per person with cocktails and dessert). As we left ‘Per Se’ I asked, “Can we get something to eat now? I’m starved.” I was only ½ kidding.
It’s MY idea to visit every beautix rooftop bar in Manhattan (there are exactly10). So far, we’ve been to, ‘The Peninsula,’ ‘230-Fith’’ and ‘NoMad’ - we’ve only been at these tasks for three nights.
We’re doing other things too. We’re going to Broadway shows (& Juliet, the Great Gatsby, Oh Mary!, Wicked) and to see Idina Menzel (Wicked, Frozen) in concert and a John Oliver and Seth Meyers comedy show next Monday. We do these, as in - Dinner, show, rooftop bar.
OH, and we’re dancin’ like we’re sentient - no cap.
Our sordid troup, is Lisa and Dave (her boo), Charles & Ms Charles, Lisa’s folks (Karen and Michael) and Lisa’s little sister Leeza and Meeeee. Luckily, we have one of my Grandmère’s conglomerate, executive secretarial minions (François) booking reservations for us. He’s got ‘contacts.’
Yeah, we’re drivin’ full speed towards summer’s end - “fo-shizzle” (to quote Snoop Dogg). We figure we can rest, a few days, in New Haven.
Wasn’t Snoop fire at the Olympics?
.
.
dance club songs, for this one:
One Kiss by Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa
Lipstick by Kungs
Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter [E]
Levitating by Dua Lipa
.
.
slang…
café-en-terrasse = terrace cafe
Black Tie Bawls = (cocktail) Blavod black ***** lemon, and Bawls energy drink.
beautix = top drawer, rizz
No cap = no lie
fo-shizzle = for sure
fire = great, a standout
[E] = explicit
Aug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 at 4:57 PM UTC
Parallel tables down this neighbourhood street
I can see some of them from distant windows
One is vacated
One is full, people buzzing about
Hot food coming out of the kitchen onto the table
Bubbling, boiling soups, freshly tossed salads
Glasses brimming with new stories
Then, to the right, a person
Sits at their table alone,
One dim light, eating from a bowl
My guess is cereal.
Stories, stories, stories
Troubling questions
Awkward silence
He’s meeting the parents today
So, he fidgets and taps his feet
She’s telling them she got into college
He just got home from his best friend’s funeral
The other house is dark,
They always have dinner at six
But today, the lights are off
Trip? No.
They’re saying goodbye to grandma in the hospital
That couple in the duplex
I think it’s their delivery date
There’s that one house,
Everyone eats at a different time
Mom, daughter, and second daughter rotate washing dishes
but the older one just got married
it looks like they are still settling into the newfound gaps
her brother left today
a house that used to be loud and crowded
now, two empty nesters
they never eat at the table anymore
they put on the TV
with their plates
because the couch is a smaller space to fill
than these dining room tables
Nov 17, 2023
Nov 17, 2023 at 2:54 PM UTC
To dine with wine
Is fine
But to drink water
With my father
Is divine
Mar 25, 2020
Mar 25, 2020 at 1:43 PM UTC
sky dining table.
much loaves of bread, butter heaps;
windswept the leftover.
Apr 13, 2019
Apr 13, 2019 at 5:16 AM UTC
blood drips
from your lips
to my fingers
my hands
stealing kisses
leave stains on your cheek
I see you, you swear
in the way your gaze lingers
as your tongue
Mar 17, 2019
Mar 17, 2019 at 12:47 AM UTC
You are invited to come
to dine with me
From now through all Eternity, Believe in the father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
And dine with the Lord
as your host
To live in Heaven Eternally,
All you must do is.?
R.S.V.P
~~
Kariinbba: Inspired by bible.
Jul 10, 2018
Jul 10, 2018 at 6:45 PM UTC
We sat side by side that evening
:a pair of lost children
before the menu list of dining.
Looks like I'm the only one
who can hear your heart throb
looks like you're the only one
who isn't bothered by ugly music
in that tea shop.
From where does this nervous start?
Eight kilometers ago a greedy fate
swallowed all holidays
and postponed journey of prayer,
delaying your arrival in the reach
of my helpless desire.
Though you finally arrived
and we sat side by side
all evening, the cracking
weather at the end of the year
did not stop sending a signal
to the trembling cup of tea in
my hand.
The conversation is like a wraith,
because words already we keep
in faith.
And in the arch of your cheeks,
twilight becomes innocent
Like a single little sin
that slowly being forgiven.
Aug 2, 2017
Aug 2, 2017 at 8:21 PM UTC
At dinner for two
I chose a tasting menu.
Chatter was pleasant,
Until the sous-vide pheasant.
Conversation digressed:
My faults were expressed.
I did not forsee,
A deconstructed m
e.
Mar 29, 2017
Mar 29, 2017 at 7:17 AM UTC
"... i have a strange feeling
that when you ask
if I want to get some food,
to 'eat out,'
i have something
entirely different
in mind, and
t'is a **** shame
if it's not on the menu-
Yet, I digress,
nevertheless,
and correct me if i'm wrong,
my answer is yes
especially if you're thinking
what i am."
Nov 1, 2016
Nov 1, 2016 at 5:21 AM UTC
so far, so great, & the promise
of so long lingers on tomorrow;
hung on tenterhooks, staggering
sparks run through the early hours
as realisation hovers. that only less
than the length of a week, now, may
hold my consignation to this side
of another stretch of soil, another
long dream.
& everyone i've ever and never met
will look up at stars the same, but
all my constellations, bent n mirrored,
will flare up and light out footstep
patterns like eye-blink,
surveying all that was lost and found.
but, for now,
gales whip up a storm outside,
like the electricity planted
in my gut. another
momentary awakening.
Mar 10, 2016
Mar 10, 2016 at 2:17 AM UTC
Magic flash— her hair,
Deepest red by candlelight,
Forgotten sunset.
Aug 20, 2014
Aug 20, 2014 at 7:34 PM UTC