In This Poem I Will Tell You About the Luncheon Following
the Final Day of Class at the 2004 Meadow Brook Writers Program  

Bravo’s, upscale Italian
bowtied waiters, salad forks
20 or so of us, teachers
 writers, whatever

a few brewskies and I decide
I want to eat only appetizers
because, I don’t know
just because
I want to eat appetizers

and during my second appetizer
Shirley asks me
“What’s that, John?”
and I say, “Calimari
highclass junkfood.”

And Pamela looks at me still
so I say, “Little squids”
and I find a whole teeny squid
deep-fried into perfect petrification
and I hold him up by a tenticle

and the ladies smilefrown

and I think I could
chase Shirley and Pamela
screaming around the restaurant
with my squid

First published English Journal (May 2005): 132.