At the Diner

8/13/2019 At the Diner

1/4

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"
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2/4

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 ,


3/4

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."


4/4

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.

At the i!er "as first publishe# i! $y!% &ye' (At the i!er')' *ol. +++' ,o. 1' -i!ter'

1996' pages 79 /3' am cCully' itor' 1//0 ill rie' $os A!geles' CA' 90041.

At the Diner

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