¿Algo Más Señora?
¿Algo Más Señora?
by Suzanne Doerge | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
i
If you ran a village restaurant in a house built
400 years ago, with stone-framed windows
welcoming in the sun
under a low ceiling of hand-hewn chestnut beams
clutching a vine that took 16 years
to grow across them
all to the sound of bells ringing from an
800-year-old belfry, next to a roman bridge
that has offered passage for nearly 2000 years
you would never be in a hurry
to make my sandwich.
ii
To the resonance of violins, he solemnly slices
the cheese and ham, devoutly cleans the blade
hungry peregrinos bow their heads
in the doorway, approach
the counter on either side of me
he anoints with oil the oven-warm bread
and graces with lettuce, pickles and tomatoes
I glance over my shoulders to make sure
the newly arrived know this is my sandwich
he christens with spices planted, nurtured and
harvested from his fecund fields
on this race to the sacred, peregrinos mumble:
gotta get going to get a bunk for night
he glides his hand across the counter
to select the perfect knife
peregrinos shuffle their feet, look at
their watches, consider their options
he pauses the blade at the preordained angle
and places the sacrament on a plate
just as the concerto reaches its diminuendo.
Having finally forgotten why I would be in a rush,
he looks up, to rest his eyes in mine,
¿Algo más Señora?
Editor’s note: This poem is from Doerge’s collection, Footfalls: Poems of the Camino (Shanti Arts Publishing, 2022). Find a review of that collection in the Winter 2023 issue of La Concha. Doerge’s poems “Village Square,” “Fields of Wheat,” and “Delight,” which are also part of that collection, were published in the Summer 2022, Autumn 2023, and Winter 2024 issues of La Concha, respectively.