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14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four Nov-Dec 2023.
(not so) Sweet Bar, poem by Allan Lake.
(not so) Sweet Bar
It appears I have achieved invisibility.
I shift tables, look expectant, try
to catch someone’s eye, raise brows
then move whole head to one side
like a curious or hungry parrot.
Prancing waiter lavishes attention
and kisses – this is Sicily –
on anyone else but cannot see me,
obvious tourist me with sun hat,
lime green thongs and beach bag.
I need my morning espresso plus
pastry and there are other cafes
in every direction. Just the name
of this cafe and its purple plastic
seats should have put me off but,
against instinct, I wandered in,
sat, waited way too long then,
shunned and stunned, wandered –
I am not a ghost – invisibly back
out in a blaze of indignation
that absolutely nobody noticed.
Episode ironically filed under:
Things That Left A Sour Taste
© Allan Lake
Allan Lake, originally from Saskatoon, Canada, has lived in Vancouver, Cape Breton, Ibiza, Tasmania, W. Australia and Melbourne. Lake has won Lost Tower Publications (UK) Comp, Melbourne Spoken Word Poetry Festival & publication in New Philosopher. Latest poetry chapbook (Ginninderra Press) ‘My Photos of Sicily’. Literary journals in 17 countries have now published his poems.