On Friday Night Poem by Charles Chaim Wax

I accompanied my sister
and her two children, Navin and Annie,
to Jahn’s restaurant to celebrate Annie’s sixth birthday.
“A Demon” we heard from the booth behind us.
A wrinkled woman no more than five feet
appeared before our table wearing a tattered blue dress.
Without warning she lifted a French fry
from Navin’s plate and stuffed it in her mouth.
“They make the best here, ” she said taking another.
I counted three brown teeth in her mouth.
“I ain’t finished eating yet, ” Navin managed to say.
“Just like my daughter—selfish, ” she said
sitting next to him. “And you could afford
to lose a few pounds. Move over, sonny boy.”
“This is a private party, ” I said.
“The long nose speaks, ” she said lifting yet another of Navin’s fries.
“Take the whole plate, ” he said,
“I ain’t eating from it after you touched my food.”
The old woman grabbed a handful of fries
stuffed them in her mouth,
then chomped rapidly.
“My daughter said to me, ‘The only reason
I tolerate you is because you’re my mother.’
TOLERATE, that’s the word she used.
What happened to love?
My husband died and that did it.
The insurance money brought it out of her.”
“When I worked after college I gave
my mother the whole paycheck, ” said my sister.
“You did, ma? ” asked Navin incredulously.
“You gonna finish that, little girl? ” she asked Annie,
then grabbed the hamburger,
squashed it into a ball,
and dropped it into her mouth
and swallowed, not bothering to chew.
Without warning she burst into tears.
Navin gaped at her in disbelief.
“You ate everything on the table, ” he said.
“Whatta you crying for? ”
She stared at him,
the rims of her pale gray eyes now limp and red.
“To bury a daughter is not so easy, sonny boy.”
“She’s dead? ” my sister gasped.
“To me! To me! ”
“It’s only money, ” I said.
“MY MONEY, ” she shrieked in a high pitched wail
as she reached across the table
for a handful of Equal packets
which she slipped into her pocket.
When Navin saw this
he did the same cleaning out the bowl.
“All of them you need, sonny boy? ”
she asked.
He handed her two.
She grinned uncontrollably
as if he had placed a gold coin
in the palm of her hand.
Once again she began to cry.
Navin quickly dumped
all his Equal packets in front of her.
She slid them off the table into her waiting hand,
then into her pocket.
“So much heartache I got
from that cheapskate creature.
But the Torah says,
‘Even in adversity
a pious woman must eat for the strength
to praise the name of the Almighty.’
So, what’s for dessert? ”