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2/20/2015 4:23:00 PM

Graphite Drug
Posts: 81

Foreign Restaurant

It is not like these restaurants in America

with their sterile atmospheres: slick new furniture,

stylized art, ambient lights, and every angle

rationalized to the judgment of specialized interests.

It is a restaurant filled with details,

inviting customers to take in an experience while eating and drinking,

to converse casually and caress senses

with a collage of décor less convenient.

One side is open to the city,

looking out on multi-story hotels with lush landscaping,

palm frond trees and a pine tree

with spreading branches and a green cloud of needles above any tourists.

Short squat curved posts hold up a wide concrete rail

with two bouquets of flowers on it: one has small yellow blooms

while the other has white daises placed with tiny red blooms.

A Mediterranean influence can be seen in columns supporting the large opening.

It is also present in the mural painted on the wall,

life size statues, and carved wood furniture.

On the mural are two angels beneath a tree much like the one outside.

A mirror with an elaborate gold frame hangs on the wall.

As the mural continues, a tall woman baring her breasts

and looking down on another angel reaching out to her adorns a cityscape

with two puffy white clouds at the wall’s center.

A grape vine is painted climbing the edge of the room’s doorway;

also near the doorway a statue of a nude child blows a horn.

At his feet are a bouquet of daises and some yellow candles.

In the center of the room is a wide wood column

with what appears to be a green copper statue of a woman

in a long dress holding a large round bouquet above her head.

Her bouquet is made up of real flowers, yellow daisies.

There are four groups of people in the restaurant.

Two are near the wall.

Two are in the center of the room.

All sit at round tables draped with white linen trimmed with intricate patterns.

The chairs are curved with no angles.

Two small rams’ heads are carved on the top back pieces of each chair.

Each table has a bouquet of red flowers and a large yellow candle.

Customers drink beer from green bottles and tall clear glasses.

A waiter rushes out with the empties.

A man with a dark complexion, thick hair, and mustache

beams with friendly eyes and expressive hands

talking about things that interest common people.

For him common, in his place of impractical details.

For travelers far away from their bare, stripped, planned environment

his speech has a life that is new, different,

paced with living rather than practiced in haste.

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