Tough to say from this tableful of scraps
what couples feasted here—gnawed olive stones
among the burnt ends of cold meat, the laps
of cantaloupes splayed open, spindly bones
of game birds, unloaved crusts, a waxy rind.
Did late-harvest wine unloose their wild talk?
Whose restless eyes, at once far-off and kind,
looked skyward on an after-dinner walk?
The clues are hard to tease out: were they fair
or compromised, temperate or gluttonous;
did some not give a fig and others care?
Both, perhaps, and in both just like us,
who, swept up in the whirl of tonight’s laughter,
pay no special mind to what comes after.

Original appearance in the Atlantic Monthly.

Boston area readers: See David Yezzi live!

Monday, 8:00-10:00 PM, December 12th, 2011
Blacksmith House Poetry Series: Rosanna Warren and David Yezzi
56 Brattle St. Cambridge Ma. 02138
617-547-6789

Rosanna Warren reads from her new poetry collection, Ghost in a Red Hat, with David Yezzi, whose most recent poetry collection is Azores.

This reading is part of the Blacksmith House Poetry Series. For the complete series schedule click here.

Admission $3.00