This Week’s Only Non-Rome-Related Post, In Which We Return Briefly To Autumn of 2005

August 31, 2005
Last night we ate oysters at Zuni Café for Bill’s birthday,
the Oyster Depot being closed

The first oyster
tastes like the ocean
A cold taste
like saltwater but better
like the scent of saltwater as opposed to its flavor
A mouthful of ocean is decidedly unpleasant
But when you stand on the beach in a stiff wind
and inhale
that’s what the first oyster tastes like
A sudden inrush of air and water and freedom and brine
in a restaurant crowded with the frantically chic
and all those windows

What’s more
as we stood at the long copper bar
drinking white wine while waiting for our table
the bartender crushed some mint in a tumbler
next to my elbow
the wet green leaves pressed up against the glass
releasing their sudden cold smell

Tonight
at home
there is
the prospect of an evening on my own while Bill’s in class
and the expectation of a dinner made from ripe red tomatoes

image source is here.