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Eating Together

By Kim Addonizio b. 1954 Kim Addonizio

I know my friend is going,

though she still sits there

across from me in the restaurant,

and leans over the table to dip

her bread in the oil on my plate; I know

how thick her hair used to be,

and what it takes for her to discard

her man’s cap partway through our meal,

to look straight at the young waiter

and smile when he asks

how we are liking it. She eats

as though starving—chicken, dolmata,

the buttery flakes of filo—

and what’s killing her

eats, too. I watch her lift

a glistening black olive and peel

the meat from the pit, watch

her fine long fingers, and her face,

puffy from medication. She lowers

her eyes to the food, pretending

not to know what I know. She’s going.

And we go on eating.

Kim Addonizio, “Eating Together” from What Is This Thing Called Love. Copyright © 2004 by Kim Addonizio. Reprinted with the permission of W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., www.nortonpoets.com.

Source: Poetry (June 2003).

Biography

Kim Addonizio was born in Washington DC, the daughter of a former tennis champion and a sports writer. She attended college in San Francisco, earning both her BA and MA from San Francisco State University, and has spent much of her adult life in the Bay Area. She currently lives and teaches workshops in Oakland, California. Addonizio has received numerous awards for her work, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation . . .

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