“Familial Cannibalism” by Dan Nowak

Of a Bed FrameI watch this family on Thanksgiving
cut into their steaks. There is
a beautiful violence to their eating
flesh. It makes me hungry for
my own family. I bring them refills.
They are my last table before
I go drink at the only bar that serves
servers. The children drown their plates
in ketchup and A-1. The parents
talk over them as if their language
is a secret. They talk to each other
like their lives are secret. One hopes
his wife doesn’t catch him
eyeing the sixteen-year-old hostess.
He doesn’t catch her undressing
the bartender. I’ve seen both naked
and admire their tastes. The only
old man at the table pecks at his plate,
sits quietly. I ask if his steak is good,
if he needs me to sell him anything else.
Everyone is on sale here, sadly. He asks
for a box. His steak is the only family
he will have until Christmas.
I pack up this treasure for him
and curse them for staying a minute
past close. I’ve no family left to eat.

-Dan Nowak,
Of a Bed Frame (2011), Accents Publishing

Dan NowakDan Nowak’s first book, Recycle Suburbia, won the 2007 Quercus Review Poetry Series Award. He also has a chapbook, Burning the Arson Dictionary: Poems for Thomas McGrath published by RockSaw Press. Dan is co-founder and co-editor of Imaginary Friend Press and an editor for New Sins Press. Dan lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and enjoys that Lakefront Brewery is less than a mile from his home.

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