Dinner Party
by Piero Filpi
The floor shakes, but the business man
In the stained tie will not stop talking.
He sits across from me. The waiter
Shaves the leg of lamb in strips,
A stainless steel knife in his hand.
The floor shakes, and the poet beside me
Orders a pint of bourbon: rocks.
It comes. He gulps it down and orders
Another plate. He likes his meats.
He’s sweating over plates of meats.
The floor shakes, and it’s raining, raining.
The rain falls hard, and then subsides,
And then falls hard, but you can hear
The rain over the talking and chewing
And slurping and the celebration.
The floor shakes, and nobody knows
Just what we’re celebrating, but
The rainy evening sky stretches on
Outside and we are in an earthquake
But we are celebrating and
The floor shakes and to my right
The girl in the black veil with the sangria
Has covered her eyes. What’s her name?
I can’t hear her. The poet’s shirt
Is soaked. He strips. The meats continue.
The floor shakes, and we’re in an earthquake,
An earthquake, and I’m way too close
To this shirtless man. His arm-hairs touch
My own, and every rumble jabs
An ache in the professor’s back.
The floor shakes, he lets out a moan,
Prompting his neon bottle of pills
To crack. The silverware is clanging
Against the salt and pepper shakers,
Ceramic plates, and against themselves.
The floor shakes, but the business man
Is paying for white wine with red meat.
I do not like white wine with red meat.
He eats so much sweat shines on his brow.
I can’t contribute to the conversation.
The floor shakes, and I can’t contribute
Because the poet said the steak
Needed more salt and there’s an earthquake
And everyone is saying it’s the rain
And the professor’s smiling through the pain.
The floor shakes, and I’ve had too much
So I doze off from time to time
And who knows what happened to my watch
And no one’s listening and the gathering
Persists and the constant shaking persists and
The floor shakes while ice is trembling
Within this empty glass I didn’t order.
About the Author
Piero Joseph Filpi is from Miami Beach, FL. He has studied under poets like Ryan Wilson and Daniel Tobin. Piero holds a BA in English from the Catholic University of America, and is currently earning his MFA in poetry from Emerson College.