Dinner Poem by Kong Yin

Dinner served
table long set
all your favorites -
fried cabbage, potato strings, mapo tofu, sweet and sour fish
and red wine, half a bottle.

Let’s eat
or the food will be cold.
You used to claim
my tofu too plain
tonight is a double measure
so eat to your heart’s content.

Unlike the candle
I won’t weep
before your empty chair
and clean utensils,

for if I am not mistaken
in the shadows
a vague figure fleeted -
his face red
as if too much pepper eaten
too much wine drunk.