Waffle House, West Fillmore, April 2006

by Brock Jones
 

He says it’s his turn to pay

so I wait by the door

on the far side of a mid-morning

crowd of diners waiting for seats.

Music trickles from ceiling speakers

barely heard over voices and coffee spoons.

A bald cook taps the grill with a spatula

and wipes his neck.

A couple holds hands

across a table.

Markose, who kills himself in four months,

passes bills over a counter…Read more