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Ryan G. Van Cleave

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Shania Twain as Waitress at The Greasy Spoon Diner

The pigheaded cobbler bangs his bowl atop
the table, wanting more Budweiser and cold bean soup

to stave away the cold, all those unfettered stars that call
like shoes needing mending, broken tongues, soles worn thin.

At the counter, the blind woman nurses her single cup of coffee,
drinking it black, like the slaughterhouse dark of her eyes.

Shania scurries from table to table, trying not to offend
the two men playing pinochle with a greasy pack of cards,

though they keep asking for more key lime pie and Sprite
when she’s carrying other orders or enjoying a Virginia Slim break.

When it’s all over, the diner closed and dim as the night outside,
she wipes down each table, working hard to clean out the hard grainy
                                                                                                  knots

the owner is too disinterested to fix. There in the shadows, her voice
takes claim, a living thing, polished and solitary, like a creature who spends

its days scratching smiley faces on a cold prison wall.

 

Page(s) 83

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