And yet you
could have walked
away—
down the steps
out the door
past the hush
of Sun’s
Laundry and into
the Other Dragon.
You could have asked for
delicate soup and sat with
your hands in your lap
folding the soft stroke of napkin
into a wild bird poised for flight.
And when it came you
could have tasted lemongrass
without the shadow of a cage.
You could have tucked the
twenty that was twice the bill
under the flimsy paper and said
please tell the chef it was lovely.
Then you could have sat for a while longer
and pretended that mercy was upstairs
waiting to settle the latch.
Ellen Malphrus is author of the novel Untying the Moon (USC Press, foreword by Pat Conroy) and the poetry anthology Mapmaking with Sisyphus (Mercer University Press, in production). Publications include Atlanta Review, The Chariton Review, Weber: Contemporary West, Poetry South, James Dickey Review, Blue Mountain Review, Natural Bridge, Southern Literary Journal, William & Mary Review, Fall Lines, Yemassee, Haight Ashbury Review, Catalyst, Without Halos, and Our Prince of Scribes. She is an award-winning professor and Writer-in-Residence at USC Beaufort who divides her time between the marshes of her native South Carolina Lowcountry and the mountains of western Montana.