Friendly Conversation
November 8th, 2014
Jason Murray 

the grocery store is full of people
all bustling and hurrying trying
to get the things for tonights dinner
boxes and cans and frozen food
very little of it will take care and
love to prepare for themselves, others

The endless rows and stacks of shiny fruit
the carefully stacked rows of Kale and
lettuce and cabbage and carrots and potatoes
the meat all cut and prepared and laid out
with the reverence, the seriousness of a
well made brick wall all facing the same way

I am here as well to get my dinner tonight
I wait my turn at the butcher counter 
to get my eight short ribs, bone and fat and meat
then on to produce as I pick out onions and garlic
and rutabaga and beets and carrots and potatoes
all stacked in my cart with the wine and the beer

An elevator to my car and then careful drive home
the puppy sitting on my arm to see out the window
rocking car as I enter the driveway careful not 
to hit the hedge to hard, small scratches evidence of 
past encounters and I am home, is this home 
the kitchen is not mine, the house doesn't always feel 

The orange Le Crueset pan sits on matching flame
the oil inside heating until almost smoking 
I drop the ribs in one by one the sound of the meat 
as it hits the oil satisfying to me, the initial smell
feels a little bitter, a little off but as the heat does 
its job the smell becomes one of familiarity and comfort

The potatoes are roasted, the beets have been diced 
the wine is poured and friends sit comfortably 
plates balanced on laps Coltraine, and Miles, and Adderly
playing on the radio, trumpets going up and down 
the drums in time to our flashing forks as we eat 
the wine replenished when our glasses are empty

Late, too late we sit into the night seeing midnight 
come and go and passing by one o'clock as well 
I drift as they continue talking the familiar smells and sounds 
of friendship and conversation lulling me and the beer 
and the wine drugging me they stay on talking
as I and the children drift off to sleep.