Tag: Food

Working at the 30th Street Senior Center, 1996

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the elderly are grumpy, cloistered together in plastic chairs, waiting for their number to be called, i’m the guy with the microphone calling the numbers, the elevator can only take 8 people down to the cafeteria at a time, i’m so lonesome all the time, since i left my baby behind, on blue bayou, i’m crooning to the mostly spanish speaking geriatric crowd, entertainment for the hungry, they smile, call me young clin-ton, or danielito, charlie is my elevator operator, he gives me a shout when he’s ready for more people, send them my way danny boy, they shuffle their feet, eager to eat a free meal, i say hello to conchita, manuel, margarita, & maria vela, they are all so kind -i only worked at the senior center for 6 months, but they gave me a few hundred dollars & a nice card when i left, periodically i looked through obituaries over the years, one by one they disappeared.

White Christmas in Rochester, New York

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i’m dreaming of a white christmas, first sung by bing crosby, 1941, only a few weeks after pearl harbor was attacked, listened to by millions, but only a large handful have ever had a real white christmas, like the ones i used to know in the late 1970’s & early 1980’s, snow stacked high, fireplace crackling, tins & tins of homemade cookies, ham baking in the oven, neighbors stopping by for eggnog, my grandfather’s organ playing all the songs, rudolph, jingle bells, deck the halls, the fir tree with gifts under every branch, dozens of christmas cards on the mantle, tinsel draped below, at night tucked into my father’s childhood bed, i peeked out past the wooden bedposts & waited for santa, this was christmas. 

My First Solo Apartment, 1996

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throughout college i had roommates, later, i futon-surfed my way through the east & west village in the nyc, by the time i landed in san francisco during the fall of 1996 i was done with roommates for good, that is when 204a day street found me, a 3-minute walk from my job at the 30th street senior center where i was the bilingual (spanish) volunteer coordinator, $540 a month & it was mine, when i first moved in i had a cot to sleep on, 6 cds, & a plant, spartan, no question, apartment highlights included: getting up at 5am to admire comet hale-bopp from my roof, hosting thanksgiving & a paella dinner party, listening to sonny rollins on sundays while cooking pasta -my solo sf apartment adventure ended when i moved to paraguay in 1998, but there are moments when i daydream about studio-living, less really was more.

Man Eats Poem

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no one talks about the teeth, composite resin fillings, coffee-stained, gaps where words get stuck, flossing only helps so much, everyone thinks about the tongue, taste touching, needs to know everything, sweet, salty, bitter, wet thing in the center of mouth, hero, villain, puts the french in kissing, probes for meaning, even while chewing, the sentences survive, poem likes breaking apart, ephemeral is the point, swallow, digest, forget, oh well.

How To Use A Microwave

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first, only eat food raw, ideally just vegetables, fruits, nuts, that hot box will give you cancer, but if you must use it, push more than one button, the beeping sounds are soothing, if it says poke holes, stab with a fork, the plastic will succumb, if frozen, stare at what you will soon eat, looks like frozen february mud, mud is dirt, remember what your camp counselor said, god made dirt and dirt don’t hurt, enjoy the microwave glow, better than a sunset, hawaii on a kitchen counter, when it stops, rapidly consume, that is the whole point, life needs to be done quickly.

Bananas

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i’ve seen you in el oro ecuadorian plantation encased in plastic, no beauty in bunches of wrappers strewn on earth underneath, because profit is everything, exports to united states & european union, consumers pull back yellow peels, reveal that white, sweet appetite for mixing with peanut butter or in milky cereal, loved for potassium, fluid balance, lower blood pressure, means we won’t die, not from eating this soft south american wunderkind, edible prodigy, machete hacked plant, cherished comestible.