THE NEW DINING TABLE

I have done practically nothing all day
Sipping down after-dinner red wine
I place the cup on the blonde table
A real dining table--a luxury compared to
my custom of hunkering over a
green-marble slab propped up on cinder blocks
Soon the table will be filled with books, papers, pens, notes
But blank for now, polished, bare

Robins cry shrill-thrush
Fussy grandmothers defending their berries
My berries
Berry wine
They have drunk

I find from this place I can
See the sun set
Watch the cardinals--first the male then the female
Dip a bright beak into a dish
And lift a small waterfall some of which
Slips down its plump tongue

And just about when I think I’ve had enough of the robins’ strident warnings
They silence
The silence of the room polished--spare hiss of gas

I empty my cup & the
Red sun slides down

 

1.20.2003
Ingrid Karklins