Food Court - Poetry by Timothy Kaiser

blurring the lines
while shopping in a furniture store
listening to Adeste Fideles in Swedish
I stop to eat a hot dog
I,
        born in the U.S.
        raised in Canada
        of German/Czech/French/Irish/family folklore has it Aztec lineage
        shopping and living in Hong Kong,
        Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China,
stop to have an all-American hot dog and an all-world Coke.

At the table beside me
sit three Chinese girls
bent over their Chinese Bibles
reading of the Aramaic Prince of Peace
born in a city shredded between three religions

one nudges her scarf further under her chin
another scribbles notes as she reads
the one with the pretty knees traces each line
slowly with her finger
trying not to get lost.

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