[brick] - Second Night at Alta

Second Night at Alta
.
.
Tony says, "What're you hungry for?"
I say, "What do you got?"
He says, "Are ya eatin' here?"
I say, "Should I?"
He says, "Sit right dere, Maria'll setcha up."
.
I sit.
Eight year old Maria says, "Did you wanna menu?"
I say, "I think Tony knows what he's going to make."
.
She brings me my cola.
He brings me a green salad with marinated onions,
hot peppers, and an acerbic vinaigrette.
A few moments later, he returns with
a red, white and green basket of bread.
.
I say, "Hey, how'd you know I like onions?"
He says, "I hadda hunch."
.
I eat my salad while Tony cooks bowl
after Friday night bowl.
.
He brings me a dish of penne alla vodka,
tells me plainly, "Don't stuff yerself, I got a coupla
more things I want you should try, soes next time
you'll maybe know what ya want."
.
The penne is perfect,
on the firm side of al dente
the sauce is slurpily good.
.
Next, he brings a dish of perciatelli amatriciana.
Rough chopped garlic, hand hewn bacon, barely broken
whole stewed tomatoes, red pepper spicy.
The hollow noodle, like the chunk of the sauce,
must be stabbed not twirled.
.
And finally, a chicken and broccoli alfredo,
again with penne,
whose fatty garlicky cheesy richness I can only pick at.
I'm stuffed.
.
Alta tonight is: Tony, Maria, Francesca, Timmy, Paulie,
coarse, gravel throated Neil, and,
a round little boy with a head of thick black hair
who never stops walking and speaks just once to say, 
"Si, pa pa, si."
.
And pa pa Neil says, "This?  This is Dante,
he owns the place,
cancha tell,
he's walkin' around all da time,
see,
we're all workin' for him."
.
.
end
dgw 2/03

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