the best i have eaten

there were Two Nudes
and a golden doodle
and they did more to lift my spirits
than Johnny Walker and his wife
who frequently lived in the apartment above my
basement shop.
i dealt in paintings of Old Masters,
sometimes being confused
by what i was looking at,
trying to divine the notion of movement
which is a quality i value.
i've often wondered if Adam and Eve ever saw
an apple tree in a classical garden?
or did the clever serpent finally achieve a likeness of a poet?
there is little to be learned from the reviews
of my life
and the orphan that went to school alone
with his Donald Duck lunch box
reminded me
to always suck on a monumental scale,
as he handed me an unused cube of sugar.
i still have that cube, hidden in my bedroom closet.
yet i was embarrassed by a feeling of
emptiness,
but it never filled me completely;
i often shouted when reading instead of
using my whispering inside voice.
and the terrible war had ideas that i tried to avoid
because boys should not hit other boys,
especially strangers
who may have wounds or may not.
i once met a black cat sleeping on my kitchen carpet
and several fish that i had adopted
but then i got lost on my afternoon drive into
the smallest near town
looking for a change in direction,
and the very next time i was washing dishes,
the cat was nowhere to be found but the fish were
nearby
reading a Julia Child cooking book.
everything changes according to circumstances
and the dinner that night was the best i have ever eaten:
it was grilled red snapper and the woman stayed close
while she ate her ripe red strawberries.