At the salad spinner,
by the sink, I spin
around and around
the red leaf lettuce.
I just drove Orion and
his friend to see
"A Thousand Words,"
with Eddie Murphy.
Eddie Murphy's
character can only
speak 1,000 words
in his entire life.
Then he dies!
Orion planned
to stay overnight
at his friend's house.
I'm alone tonight.

Cutting up kalamata
olives, carrots, onions,
broccoli, raw almonds
for my salad, the house
stands in silence.
Even Onyx sleeps,
I see her on laying
on the wood floor,
moving her legs,
dreaming of chasing
a flying rabbit.
May be I'll put in
even more veggies
to keep me company.
I'll crunch the
solitude away.
Sarie visited this
evening and has decided
to go into pre-med!
She left to have
dinner with Chang.
He's almost finished
with law school, loves
mountain climbing, is
funny in a "totally cute
way", and  "gorgeous."
(Sarie's descriptions.)
Perfect for her!

Smiling, I gather
the salad dressing
ingredients : one cup
fresh parsley, one
clove garlic, Grey Poupon
mustard, olive oil,
Braag apple cider vinegar.
I place them in the blender.
While the ingredients whiz
around and around
Sheri, my sister in Florida,
calls.  After six stretched-out,
gray, unemployed months
she's received two
fabulous job offers.
I'm happy for her also!
Tonight Sheri is
going out with Jeremy,
visiting for the weekend.
"I love you!" she says
"Keep up the poetry!"
and hangs up.

I pour salad
whizzed dressing over
crunchy veggie salad
and wonder
if I should watch
Jean-Luc Picard and company ...
boldly going where 
no one has gone
before...  and imagine
I'm their friend and
am going too,
because tonight...
for the first time
in a long time,
I, not only am alone,
I feel alone,
the space left
from a relationship
broken into pieces.

I had mentioned this
to Sheri when she called.
She just laughed and said
I am not alone.
I have my kind, creative
self and a bowl full
of nutritious roughage!

Hmmmm... I pour
myself a glass
of filtered water,
squeeze in 1/2 a lemon -
wishing the water
were Merlot -
sit on the couch
with my crunchy salad,
covered with whizzed salad
dressing.  May be
I'll call my friend,
Peter, a practitioner
of Chinese Medicine
and acupuncture,
who lives in Cleveland.
Actually, I wish Peter
lived around the corner.
I would invite him over
for crunchy salad,
whizzed salad dressing
and water with lemon.
We could sit on the
couch together and
talk for hours.  Oh,
never mind the water,
we'd drink glasses
of delicious Merlot.