Waiter Poem by Zubyre Parvez

I have seen the decor of many restaurants
Made in good taste with hosts of flowers
The welcome of coats taken and put on
I have added the sauces to signature
Starter plates in my very own hand
Two heads corner a table to discuss
Business every Sunday evening
I have made napkins as origami:
Poetry with paper squiggled lines
On serviettes or on the drinks pad
Where I have written the poetry
Of cadenced wines: Pinot Grigio,
Merlot or Rose or I have drawn pints
From the barrel rolled into the bar

I have stood at the bar
Served those who believed
They were head and shoulders
Above the rest in the restaurant
The bottles and their years
Their place on their necks
That I have travelled within
the outlines of this country sketched
That these restaurants
Have brought the world closer
Like suitcase stickers these bars
Looking back over these years.