BluesPoetry

BluesPoetry

Every week he had lunch at the same place
Green chicken enchilledas, tortillas and beer
Friday night special every Tuesday lunch
Sometimes natillas on the side for desert
Mary always made sure the beer was cold
And plenty a limes and salt and fresh tortillas
It was a habit developed since he came home
No one ever asked him why and he never said
Hot green chili it had to be no substitutes no way
She had been his waitress all these years no one else
They all knew she was his special friend
Once she had been sick in bed but she got up
Went to work just because it was Tuesday lunch
It damn nearly killed her but he didn't know because
It was for him, that special person in her life
The roses reached high over the counter
when she died ,every color he could imagine
He would come in and sit at the same spot but
Didn't say a word and he couldn't say the words
But always the green chicken enchilledas hot would appear
Cold beer and lots of limes and salt with tortillas
He had picked out a new black suit even though he never saw her grave
But roses were always there everyweek on Tuesday for lunch
She once went to see him in the hospital some 40 years ago
The same hospital her husband George had been in before he died
He had seen her come to visit George every night after her shift ended
He and George were drafted from the same midwest town but never met
Mary and he talked sometimes while George was sleeping
Georges pain often kept him awake so when George could sleep Mary let him
He was a loaner with no visitors no family no wife no kids
He looked forward to Mary's talks about her job at the cafe and about the green chicken Enchilledas they cooked and the cold beer with limes. About the hot chilies they used
He would surely miss Mary and their secret love and the Friday night special of Green Chicken Enchilledas he always ordered every Tuesday for lunch a cold beer with limes with Salt and tortillas and the roses of ever color that reached high over the counter
They tore down the cafe a few years ago just after he died and the town went the way of Other small towns when the freeway was built over in the next county.