They know his name at Carraba’s.
He’s never gotten a parking ticket.
His Christmas display isn’t the biggest
but it still makes people weep in their Mazdas.

can of whoopass, you USDA Certified lover, 
you fiery red Camaro, you hole in the wall.  

Son, some advice: you don’t know 
what a hangover is, but when you learn, 
a McDonalds #4 breakfast will help. 
Never eat at Subway. 
You’re allowed to take breadsticks
& salad and/or cheddar

On the way to T’s childhood Wendy’s I tell her
about mine, a Fancy Wendy’s, with a salad bar,
rooms, tin ceilings or something. I’ve been too afraid
to go back: no person ever steps into the same

Every book says I’ll miss this part.

" ... look at me now, with a margarita / in a little pitcher thing, shaken"

All day I look forward to hours of empty house
then I’m there and the whole place itches. I go
not home but the place that tries so hard to feel like it.

Nostalgia style: you miss your Double Double
before you even take a bite. You know
burgers become slimy wax paper crumbles,
babies become toddlers, toddlers become

We’ve never lived in Culver’s territory and it still doesn’t

feel like we do. I mean, it’s at 33^rd and Iowa and our place
is at 9^th and Indiana. That’s like a 15-minute drive.

In this plastic bayou we’re not customers,
we’re guests. POPEYES GUEST 138,
YOUR ORDER IS READY. Guests, yes,
but also numbers—we’re not in Panera

All the waffles in Texas / are shaped like Texas. All / the waffles in Ohio / are shaped like waffles.

"Nobody bothered them. They ate, they had fun. They danced a little. We have a jukebox in here."
Carolyn Washington, manager of the Waffle House at 59th Ave & I-10 in