Literal Latte

(Note: It's not about the fat.)

Sometimes,
I have found,
it is easiest to choose
nothing at all.

For example:

You are at an
elegant cocktail party,
and a pushy young waiter

shoves a platter of

bite-size delicacies
(all liable to ruin your brand-new,

dry-clean only dress)
in your face.
Rather than test his patience

(and your stain-remover, back home)
It is easiest to answer,
"No, thanks; I've had some already."

Perhaps

you're at a
family barbeque
and a table of dishes,
each prepared by a
different and highly sensitive
(menopausal) aunt
awaits your judgment call.
To avoid offending,
it is often simplest to just get up
and offer your seat to

someone else,
someone older (preferably frail), saying,
"No, no, really-I insist."

Or maybe,

you are dancing at a
nightclub with

some friends from college
and two equally

handsome
young bachelors offer
to take you out afterwards
for a late night bite-to-eat.
Instead of having to choose one
(and later wish you had gone with the other)
It is often best to just tell a little white lie, like,
"Sorry-I already ate."

What about when

you are at home
on a July morning and

awake before anyone else (even the heat)?
And your naked body,
loosely enveloped by a

thin cotton robe,
sits in the kitchen,
whispering sweet-nothings

to a wobbly old chair,
while your toes

   dangle

and

       drink

from the wooden floor

below them
whatever coolness they can?
And through an open window

your eyes quietly take note

of a snail, still sleeping,

delicately coiled on the

wilted petals

of your mother's irises

like a newborn child?
And behind it, the sun

rises, stoically

glowing; a halo on the horizon.

In such a case,
on such a morning,
there's a chance that your mind might still be asleep,
and simply wouldn't-couldn't!-know where to begin
writing, reading, or tasting that day;
or even, this poem.

In such a case,
on such a morning,

where there is simply too much to choose
I have found that it is easiest to have
your mouth say, politely, on your mind's behalf,    

"No, thank you. Today

I'm really just not that hungry.