Brett Warren

Mooncake in a Chinese Bakery

You came for this round wonder
on a paper plate

& found windows steamed
to invisibility

tables & chairs so close
you have to go sideways

to get the one seat left
at a rickety table by the wall

the bell on the door
an insistent message

from the world of the sidewalk
where gutters gutter over

& rain rains down
which you blissfully ignore

because you want to drown
in the refuge of voices

not one word you understand

not one face you know

not a soul who knows you

this happiness a measure
for all happiness

a lotus mooncake
the least of it.

---

Brett Warren shares her late mother’s utter disinterest in the idea of an afterlife and might prefer reincarnation, though perhaps not as a human.

---