Post on 03-Jun-2018
8/13/2019 At the Diner
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Bruce Curley
po etsli fe @gm ail. com
po etsli be.blogspot .co m
301 325 7936
At the Diner
At the Diner,
love , hope and tragedy,
faith, broken lives
and buckets of warm coffee ,
but most important ly ,
fast and cheap good food
all mingle in cosmic proportion
to the big- tipping custome rs
and life-giving waitress eswho pass the ir moments in space
and time co-mingled in exper ience
of talk and talk and food and drink
and talk and talk and talk there.
At the Diner,
When the wai tress says ,
"What ' l l i t be, Hon!" she knows
what it will be but still asks
and you sti ll reply, "Usual. Number 3."
you know it will be as good as beforeand lickety split , three s tacks whea t pancakes
golden brown and fluffy upon which you drop
a half s tick of butter and a carafe of syrup
with marble sized blueberries inside
and toas ted sc rapple
a nd e as y ov er cou nt ry e gg s
with but tered toas t
before shovel ing in
the Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple
with Heinz "57 varieties" catsup
as a roof on top.As the first juicy pancak e slice
slides down your throat
to your famished s tomach
you s tar t to hear Frank Sinatra 's
"Stranger s in the Night"
mailto:poetslife@gmail.commailto:poetslife@gmail.com8/13/2019 At the Diner
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At the Diner
Curley
Pag e 2
and it seems as if love wereposs ible tonight , right here , right now,
m ay b e you a nd t he wai tr e ss or t he
girl much younger than you in that booth
with the unjil ted smile and honey hair
that might consider you, Yes You,
in her life and dreams and future .
At the Diner,
so m a n y m e mo ri e s cr as h t hr ou g h
the minds creep ing depression to revea lcracks in the thick walls of melancholia,
and open ings where light and the rapy from
waitresses
who double as mothers and nurses bring ing
good hear ty food to souls who, due to life's
machinat ions , of ten forget to ea t .
At the Diner,
so easily and languidly...
the mind drifts ,and my fa the r si ts in tha t boo th over the re !
I am five, and we have s topped
for lunch in the middle
of the beer t ruck delivery run
and I have his undivided a t tention,
one of the few times
tha t would ever happen --
and he i s regal ing me
with stories of his childhood
of how dur ing the Depress ion
he had to go to schoolwit h o ra n ge sh oe s his m ot h e r bo ug h t
cheap and put black shoe poli sh on
excep t it r ained and washed the shoe poli sh off
and all the kids laughed a t him
an d he wa s s o e mb a rr a s s ed
tha t even as a k id he a lways worked two jobs
so he could afford good clothes ,
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At the Diner
Curley
Pag e 3
an d th e tim e
they rolled so many old tiresdown the st ree t they were able to hold o ff
a squadron of police only to find
the police knew the ir paren t s
a nd t he y re tu rn e d ho m e
think ing they got away with murder
only to find thei r paren t s on the doors tep
waiting to give them a licking
because the police ,
who belonged to thei r same par ish ,
had visi ted before
and tipped off the ir paren t sto do the punishing.
At the Diner,
in another booth ,
Tony Fondots and I
have s topped a t a Circle d iner
in Southern New Jersey
coming back from the shore
a nd yo un g a nd dr un k a nd lau gh in g
and goofing with some young girls who respond,
"I have my doubts about you Fondouts!"in a play on Tony' s name
and we a ll begin to laugh so hard
t he t ea rs run do wn our ch ee ks
and thi s was way before a guy
who didn ' t like governmen t employees
saw Tony had on a Posta l Service shirt
and tossed him from a bridge in Norristown, PA
causing his pelvis to f racture in 186 places
and then got off because his Dad was able to afford
a bet ter and slicker lawyer than Tony
and offered this wisdom af terwards ,"Why do you think it 's called
the criminal just ice sys tem?
It 's justice for the criminals."
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At the Diner
Curley
Pag e 4
At the Diner,
in another booth ,My body is old and spent
like tha t guy a t the end of the movie "2001"
and does not r espond too well to s timul i
like ta lk or thought , but the food
war ms my mo ut h an d st om ac h ,
the coffee is good and hot ,
the wai tress is kind and funny
and ignores my drool ing on my plate .
The pancakes fill my hunger
just bef ore my hear t stops
its power- plant s trength contractions ,and it is all over...
(Or so I thought. ..)
.. .Unt il , a t Heaven 's Gate ,
I'm hungry and ti red
from too many years on the road
and stop in this diner where St. Brigit
immediate ly brings me ice water
and hot coffee, winks, and says ,
"What'll it be, Hon!"and I wink back and say,
The usual . Number 3 .
"Pancakes and sc rapple .
And another cup 'a java , please?"
and she smiles back and says ,
"You betcha! It so happens
I just brewed another pot
because we were expec tin ' ya, Hon!"
and we both laugh in that Diner
and le t the t ea r s run down our cheeks
to b ring wa ter and love and s treng thto a ll the diner customers on ear th.
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