Let’s Eat (Together), by Marilee Goad

for Anthony Bourdain

do we drink from the bottle

                                                or the glass?

you asked and she said i’m a lady, i should drink from

                                                the glass

and you didn’t say well, i’m a man, just said, good to

know,

and followed suit,

                                    your beer frothing over its lip

as you tasted food she called comfort

while she rattled off stories stewed in discomfort

you said nothing, just listened, asked

questions

she told you,

when you see your enemy as human, your whole world

changes

                                    nothing can be the same

                                    again

you nodded: do they cry?

            they break down, touch cheek to cheek

            remember the war

            but say

                        you are my brother now

and in the ellipsis you allowed a story to unfold

over meals known and unknown,

the beer cold

your ear warm

a whole world disinterred though the gaze of a man

who ate our food and said

                        you are my brother now

                        i see you

                        i hear you

clinked your beer glass against ours and said

                        let’s eat.

Marilee Goad attended the University of Chicago and has work published or forthcoming in Ghost City Review, OUT/CAST, and Georgetown University School of Medicine's Scope arts magazine.