by Linda Lerner
this is about dozens of turtles
a mid eastern restaurant we sat in on Atlantic Avenue
hungry and broke
turtles crawling onto the tarmac at JFK
delaying flights for over an hour
this is about watching you slowly bite off
a piece of lamb from a skewer as
you watched me do the same and we
inched our way thru couscous into baklava
past closing time
turtles crawling toward the grassy marshlands
on the other side of the runway to lay their eggs
this is about wondering what it feels like
to be a turtle...
we never looked at the bill
we kept on eating the waiters kept looking at their watches
air traffic controllers threw up their hands in frustration
people sat in planes waiting for the turtles to get across
nobody asked what they do once their eggs were laid
where they’ll go
this is about love sick turtles
It is about a meal we never finished
Linda Lerner's Takes Guts and Years Sometimes (New & Selected Poems) has just been published by New York Quarterly Press.
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