Usually I eat alone

sometimes I write notes

sometimes I read

sometimes I do nothing

observe other diners

polite to the server

do not leave large tip

even though I used to be a waitress.

for nine year I toiled in a restaurant

Howard Johnson’s on East forty-second Street,

I was in a union,

once was the shop steward.

Tonight I toil over words,

the poet as a young waitress.

the old woman as a young poet.

I forget why I do this

just a diner in in the city.