Dinner

I sat there, in the restaurant,
between a college girl
and a marine
across from three little girls
and one tired one.

Behind me, they talked about the Game
and the Fish
and the Elections
and none of them heard a word of what they said
distracted by the art on the walls.

In the bathroom, I heard a girl
(my age, more or less)
learn bulimia from her friend-
"You just have to put it
 a little further toward the back of your throat,"
she said.
Washing my hands, I watched my sister in the mirror.
She looked at me with a question, and I-
I didn't know how to answer,
so I simply dried my hands.

I sat back down on the booth seat
(the little girls climbed back and forth over the tops of the seats and under the table as the tired one looked on
and sighed).

I took a child's menu and the three crayons
red
blue
yellow
the blue one broke
but underneath my hands, I had an excuse
to ignore the world.

The food came after a while.
I made a paper airplane and an origami crane from my crayon-artwork
I blew the straw wrapper at a little girl, who laughed.

We ate, the whole family together.
I ate, embarrassed to be hungry in the face of
Dinner.