David J. Thompson

Lunch Buffet $5.99

I’m finishing The Selected Letters
Of Wilfred Owen at the Shoney’s
off the highway in Athens, Tennessee.
Owen writes his mother to send him
some heavy socks as another winter
in the muddy trenches approaches.
I know without reading he’ll be killed
within the week out on routine patrol
just a few days before the war is over,
or any warm socks have time to arrive.

I put the book down, take another bite
of yellowy potato salad, a quick sip
of iced tea. I watch an old woman
in pink pants push a walker slowly
past the register toward the front door.
I see it’s still raining outside, no sign
of it letting up anytime soon.

 

David J. Thompson is a former prep school teacher and coach who has been traveling since October 2013. His latest photo/poetry chapbook, And Thou Upon Earth, is available from Nerve Cowboy in Austin, Texas. Please visit his photo website at ninemilephoto.com.