The Dinner Party - Aug. 14, 2022

first time guests always

gently knuckle the door

stiff-fingered handshakes

two-worded politeness

silent as cubed ice

cheese and crackers

help crack some laughter

grape wine group jokes

voices sliced and spun louder

ping ponged between players

dinner ushers all inside

hearty stories bounce off walls

among steam-showers of food

candles drip sway

with the conversations

warm blueberry pie

with vanilla ice cream

the lips that prey

on sugared confection

now too occupied to speak

as quietness settles

like the end of most evenings

we hug as silently

as they arrived

and they leave

fuller shadows of themselves