i order a salad
salmon
beautiful and proud
hides his profile in
the leaves
in all the dialects of his native
language, he tries to tell me that the service
here is bad and that the staff sometimes
drop cutlery on the floor; others
choose a place next door – red in excess –
i can hear them slurping their noodles
all my
senses spin a request to turn down the
air con but the hostess has put on her face
a moisturizing mask and
needs another 5-6 minutes before she
can wash it off
she hides in the secluded
nook and sends text messages to her
lover
every day it is clear that he would
not leave his wife and kids for her
i count one hundred and twenty one seconds
and fold my sentences in origami salmons
“can you turn down the air con?”
“do you think you can turn down the air con?”
“will you please turn down the air con?”
dear grant, i’ve been loving you
for too long. i need to wash off my mask
and take care of a freezing client x x
