We had American cooking in a diner.
It was dusk. Everyone felt
like dancing and singing.
No one did, except the drunk.
Mick had to say goodbye
to every waitress and the cook.
The cook’s grief seemed real as tears in a dream.
The moon turned every fallen blossom to light.
Tomorrow?
I let my arm drift out the car window and it flew away.
Leonard Gontarek has lived in Philadelphia for twenty years. He has taught and presented hundreds of poets through reading series in the area. He is the author of St. Genevieve Watching Over Paris, Van Morrison Can’t Find His Feet, Zen For Beginners and Deja Vu Diner (Autumn House Press, 2006). His poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry, Joyful Noise! An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry, American Poetry Review, Blackbird, BlazeVox, Pool, Fence, Field, and as a tattoo. www.leafscape.org/LeonardGontarek