Dinner with You

I only ever came here for the fortune cookies

I don't know if you can tell

when I stare at the menu

under shiny plastic with a red rim

when I glance

up I can tell you're reading the Mandarin

in the menu not the English

you glance up

can you tell that I'm hardly reading the English?

The waitress is here as soon

as she sees you

as she can be

Grace!

Naia!

it's Manderin like the menu

but I understand

this is your world

I understand so much not like when I look

at the menu I can't even begin

to pick a dish off of that

but I could listen to this forever

talking like paintbrushes and ink on canvas

Rowan,

what do you want?

I want this world

with you and shy smiles and clever jokes

and paintbrush words and restaurants down back alleys

for dinner?

my breath catches when I realize

it's about dinner

and I have no idea what I want for dinner.

Naia The Waitress

is looking at me like my lack of answer

is a crime like she's the prosecutor

I'm the defendant

No

like she's the parent

I'm the scared new boyfriend

yes like that like worse

I look down

tap a clash of characters I hardly understand

glance up Grace's smile

like it's a comedy movie

look down her finger tapping another dish

and nod

anything else?

I don't think I passed the test

a fortune cookie,

please?

nod turn around rolls her eyes.

We eat the food is good the company better

I pay the least I could do

we walk into the mist

I think we're the only ones in the world

your red raincoat black hair with little braids at the front

my yellow sweatshirt brown hair and

tucked in my pants pocket

a fortune cookie

a bit crushed from being there

I crack it in half

one for each of us

the message says

Everyone has their own hidden world

their own story

and you will soon get to know someone else's.

This is a "five" writing with the words from OverTheRainbow. The words were: Menu. Mist. Defendant. Fortune. Breath.