The cognac was finished, the ice now shards,
she made Dad quit smoking that year, and she
runs with dirty feet from Father�s place at the head
of the long white table set for twenty-five, after
the tape of their youth was done, Auntie said
Flip it over. She was the joker in ESL;
her girls loved her, wanted to sit next to their auntie,
and the newlyweds started dancing, the grandmothers
playing cards in the corner, while the chef said,
You are such a good worker, my daughter! Ma cried
for her babies, two hours north off the I-405
on good days; they know only English! The young
women couldn�t imagine as they fried plantains
and scooped vanilla ice cream into bowls
broken years later, into pieces
that pierced the softening white
song; those spoons opaque
in the slow stubborn slide into night.





<<