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.
