i order a salad

salmon

beautiful and proud

hides his profile in

the leaves

in all the dialects of his native

language, he tries to tell me that the service

here is bad and that the staff sometimes

drop cutlery on the floor; others

choose a place next door - red in excess -

i can hear them slurping their noodles

all my

senses spin a request to turn down the

air con but the hostess has put on her face

a moisturizing mask and

needs another 5-6 minutes before she

can wash it off

she hides in the secluded

nook and sends text messages to her

lover

every day it is clear that he would

not leave his wife and kids for her

i count one hundred and twenty one seconds

and fold my sentences in origami salmons

“can you turn down the air con?”

“do you think you can turn down the air con?”

“will you please turn down the air con?”

dear grant, i’ve been loving you

for too long. i need to wash off my mask

and take care of a freezing client x x