Poetry about Poetry ... original or previously published poetry, March 2001
Luncheon at the Amherst Tea Rooms
Between two starchless napkins -
arranged mountainously -
How do you do Miss Dickinson
Please - Call me Emily
The veal is on special
I order a carafe
She wears bifocal spectacles -
Sunlight cuts us in half
Red soup swirls with creme fraiche
Plates appear - We feed
Exact incision in the flesh -
clumsy reaping of peas
Her arms are alabaster -
her eyes - Mother of Pearl
- her face pale as her bell-shaped pear -
The skin becomes the peel
The malt is thick with peat
I spear glace cherries -
note that me pleated kerchief apes
the walls' drained fleurs-des-lis
I gesture - make no fuss -
I barely speak its name -
suggestion she can not - refuse -
But - Sam - what can you mean
Sam Gilbert
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Updated March 2001