I Go Alone
I go alone to the Chinese restaurant
across the street. I’m not lonely. I want
to be with me. The waiter doesn’t know
my name but he knows my order:
‘chicken with snow peas, wonton soup –
right, boss?’ I read over the zodiac placemat for the hundredth time while I wait, always drawn to me first – 1967, the Sheep, elegant but creative, timid, prefers anonymity. ‘Well, maybe,’ I whisper to myself. I eat and scrib poems, not elegant but passable. My meal ends with a fortune: ‘Everything you do, you do to make your heart sing.’ This is why
I go alone to the Chinese restaurant across the street.
right, boss?’ I read over the zodiac placemat for the hundredth time while I wait, always drawn to me first – 1967, the Sheep, elegant but creative, timid, prefers anonymity. ‘Well, maybe,’ I whisper to myself. I eat and scrib poems, not elegant but passable. My meal ends with a fortune: ‘Everything you do, you do to make your heart sing.’ This is why
I go alone to the Chinese restaurant across the street.
JDB- sounds like fun- spending time with ‘me’….typically i default to hitting the drive-thru for an all beef patty special sauce lettuce cheese pickles (hold the onions) on a sesame seed bun. No waiting for food, no zodiacs, no fortune cookies ~ and if the first drive thru is croweded, i look for the other place where i can have it “my-way”
….after re-reading your post, maybe….”my-way” isn’t the best way….
Tim? Tim Evans the author? Wow.
Hey, thanks for the response. Yeah, learning to be-friend yourself is a good gift.
Johnny-Blaze, bud you are half-right….it’s ‘tim+anne’ evans (“co-authors”) you know, it’s that co-leadership/ unity/ oneness thing
Awesome, I only go to the Chinese restaurant across the street because others ask me to:-) I prefer Thai food.
Michael, you can dine alone at the Thai place too.
Thanks for stopping by!
Pure. simple. beautiful.
Thanks, my friend.
Good title for your Chapbook. Hey this is a winner. But they all are. Haven’t met one I didn’t want to spend time with. You know something about being 53 it is a-okay with me to dine alone. Heck half the people eating with others are really “alone” anyway. Love sitting beside the couples who don’t speak the ENTIRE meal what the what!!??
Elizabeth, that is a nice title…hmmm, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!
“Well, maybe, I whisper to myself”….ahhhhh. It’s the honesty that’s so dang compelling. And fwiw, I have sat in silence with my husband at a restaurant and counted it a blessing to have the time. Four teenagers at home. Homeschooling. Silence=good. 😉
Thanks, Tonia. My grandmother used to have a framed saying on the wall: Silence is golden. I am only now beginning to know what that means.
I have gone many times “alone” to eat in a restaurant: Pull out the notebook in my purse. Carry on in conversation, on paper, with the Man sitting in the seat across the table. Chinese food is especially lovely. 😉
Thank you, Peg.