by Luz Castaneda
The Dinner Party
You, as the party continues
implore us to release the Kraken.
I serve the matinee
desserts, someone will be brained
tonight after an argument about scrabble.
We will eat, touch knocked knees.
One of us will have an affair. Another
will watch. Can we bottle evenings
like fireflies fighting the great dim
of our cubicle jobs and dreams of gin?
There will be a Kerouac aficionado. Who
Will propose a pilgrimage to Tangiers?
Rule #7: absolutely no talk of grout or yardwork.
Small talk is for the birds. We crave
suspect decisions, ugly speeches by beautiful
people. A penny for your smashed
champagne flute? Have you tasted
such succulent poison?
Once we had chaos of this sort, each
sundress a universe imploding on itself.
Those who have woken with lipstick
moons on the Adam’s apple, you’ll
know the times don’t get better.
They just get.
And get. And get. Some advice:
pray the dinner
party stretches to eternity. It
won’t, of course. You’ll die like all
the diners. And before you do, you’ll ask
for one more dinner, one more
knockout highrise love affair.
They say the eye of the supernova
is calm as a needle balancing
on a fingernail.
When you’re in the center of it all
pause to gloat: enlivened by
the moment, you inveterate taster, you
spreader of cream cheese, lustful
day-drinker, you’ll do anything
to be back here one day. You’ll come to
Prefer the dance of coleslaw and
prosecco. Yes yes. Until one day
like the lipstick on the neck,
and the memory of its giver,
it’ll be so, so gone.
Sal Teodoro is a Canadian writer from the east coast. His work has been published in The Antonym, The Trinity Review, and Ghost Colophon.
Luz Castaneda was born in Brazil to Brazilian and Spanish parents. Since 2014, she has been living and working as an artist in NYC. She is a self-taught artist, a biologist, Ph.D. in Genetics, educator and researcher in the sacred language of nature. Her research and artwork are a combination of her artistic soul and scientific mind. Her art has been exhibited in multiple galleries in the United States and Brazil. www.luzcastaneda.com