American Life in Poetry: ‘Center Café’
I’ve shared with you a couple of poems from the anthology “Local News: Poetry About Small Towns” from MWPH Books in Fairwater, Wisconsin. Here’s another, by Mark Vinz, who lives in Minnesota.
Time and timelessness. We’ve all been in this café, haven’t we? His latest book of poetry is “Permanent Record.”
Center Café
Well, you’re in town, then. The boys
from the class reunion wander in
and take their places in the corner booth,
just as they might have fifty years ago –
grayer, balder, wearing hats announcing
places far away. Their conversation
rises, falls to the inevitable – a missing
friend who worked right up until the end,
another who is long past traveling. Smiles
grow distant as their silence overtakes
the room. The busy waitress pauses,
nods. She’s always known the boys.
Poem copyright 2019 by Mark Vinz, “Center Cafe,” from “Local News: Poetry About Small Towns” (MWPH Books, 2019). Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. American Life in Poetry is made possible by the Poetry Foundation and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions.