I miss the smell of the restaurant – of food cooking, of someone serving the meal & taking away my dirty dishes, of being able to ask for suggestions. Taking your chicken souvlaki out of a paper bag and finding out it is pork isn’t the same as seeing it on the plate & sending it back right away. I miss plating – the art of someone else arranging food on your plate.
I missing being able to give your order at a coffee shop without having to shout through your mask & over-enunciate words like ‘sweet & low’ & having to repeat yourself as they still don’t hear clearly over the music. I miss paying for things with cash. What do people without plastic do?
I miss wearing shirts to public events, because there are no public events to wear them to. I have a wardrobe based on public appearances, even if the appearance is meeting someone for lunch or doing a feature in front an eager audience of poetry fans. The face mask has replaced the shirt, the t-shirt for now.
Shopping has changed here in Ontario. Not that I spent a lot of time in stores but I miss the sense of destination, of discovery as I browsed the aisles looking. When I do shop I am focused on what I want but there are times when going through the tables of remaindered books at Book City, or even Indigo, results is amazing discoveries.
Not that I mind online shopping for most things & I sure do love packages showing up at my door but I miss the hunt. No more impulse shopping. No more checking every aisle in the grocery store for specials, now it’s all about following the right arrows to maintain social distance.
I missing not knowing what day of the week it is because I’m no longer doing what I used to do every Wednesday that took me out of the house. My cell phone now tells me what day of the week it is. I think this is Monday.
Old Feet New Shoes
it’s never a fresh start
there is no clean page
no expanse of innocent white
to start in on
there is always a past
something to remember to avoid
lessons learned
something to escape from
to forget
to write over scribble out
<>
new shoes always go on old feet
we stand on what we are familiar with
bring the same skill set
to each fresh opportunity
to do the same thing in a different place
yet how different is the place
a chair is always a chair
lights are always lights
<>
different shades fabrics
but new jeans are still jeans
same hair changed style
anxious for the new
as if the old
was worthless inferior
<>
why should things last at all
the longer cars last
the fewer cars get sold
the fewer cars get sold
the economy grinds to a halt
people are out of work
it’s all your fault
you fucking pedestrians
we’ll make narrower sidewalks
to discourage all that walking
<>
nothing new in this same old rant
about the same pointless crap
words won’t fuel the economy
who reads
who listens
who cares
nobody wants a fresh start
just new shoes
sweet, eh? paypal.me/TOpoet
TOpoet 