Just A Poem I Wrote

(based on the painting Chop Suey by Edward Hopper)
1.

A Lady In Green

I walk inside Chop Suey for the first time with my friend.

We take a seat by the dirty windows as a siren in the distance
Goes off.

A man at a table far from ours peers down at his plate,
Oblivious of the woman across from him.

The clear sky, with no rain, no clouds, is just the weather
My friend has dreamed of.

The couple far from us tries to decide their order, but
Their waiter has not shown up for an hour now.

Ours hasn’t either.

Come to think of it, that couple, and my friend and I are the only
People in the restaurant.

Perhaps the bright, red-gold-blue sign reading “Chop Suey”
Wasn’t bright enough for a sleepless city like ours.

Where has everyone gone?

Where do people go on Sunday afternoons?

I think of my cousin and her daughter laughing in Central
Park, tasting the colors, bright green, yellow, pear, grey-as-fog.

And of my father, alone in his home. The rough walls, the sound of
Silence in his ears, tasting the orange of the glowing fire he has lit.

I shall try to get my friend to see a picture at the theatre;
She always did have a fondness for movies.

I am lost, deep in thought. The waiter still has not come.

At times, even a city as busy and bright as New York can seem
As alone and isolated as a Chinese Restaurant, with dirty windows.

And waiters who abandon you.