PREFERRED SEATING AT CHUMLEY'S

From ancient corner snug, or booth,

it is possible to observe

the waitresses who serve

to ravenous drunken youth

barbarous and uncouth

baskets of sweaty lobster.

It’s all you can eat lobster.

Lobsters, to be quite honest,

.

really make me want to hurl

I am only here because my girlfriend is Molly.

.

Lobster is grasped by youth in glittering forfex,

ripped apart and sucked, people crunching

and ripping and sucking

and laughing like death was a dream.

Gula! Gluttony!

All you can eat? Gula!

Gluttons put their brains to bed

with gooey toys.

.

My seat is a little too close to the fire.

.

A family of Labradors congregates

under my table. Mother flops,

babies settle down, blinking

in the firelight, their cocoa fur

spangled with sawdust.

.

Of all the actresses working here

Molly is prettiest,

but she’s not an actress—she’s the real thing.

.

With brain simmering

I wait until Molly comes by

and slams another mug of beer in front of me.

I didn’t even ask for it

which is the magical thing about it.

.

But word comes from the bar that Angel is dead.

Cleaning the Chumley’s bathrooms,

dumping the wastebasket, Angel got jabbed

with a dirty syringe, whence he contracted AIDS.

I’m lucky:

I’m alive.

I’m human.

My girlfriend is Molly.

Molly works at Chumley’s.

Ergo my beer is free,

I think.

.

Angel: not so lucky.

.

At this stage of the evening

I have crippling vertigo and euphoria,

my eyes are glowing somewhat.

I have a cigarette but not a light.

I am not smoking yet I am burning.

Heat without ignition. Burning

without purification.

.

No matter. I am only here in a monitoring capacity.

.

Molly is so beautiful, everywhere she goes

she is importuned with vain hellos.

.

etymology:

molitrix: female contriver

mollesco: I soften

mollicella: dainty

mollipes: soft-footed

mollitudo: tenderness, softness, sensibility

burning dog hair

alerts me once more to my surroundings.

.

The youths have departed.

At the now-deserted table: lobster corpses, ragged claws.

The whole joint is littered with body parts

each gutted carapace a successive mask

of gula.

.

Antonio, Angel’s brother, clears away the mess.

Molly claims the heartless gratuity.