Table Manners

The peas were a pile of wrinkled, canned green

next to the pork chops we both forgot to heat.

It was the quietest dinner there has ever been,

just the sound of two people refusing to eat.

The white fat congealed in a ring on the stoneware

while you explained why you couldn't stay.

I stared at the grease and the cheap, floral glassware

and waited for the courage to clear it all away.