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My waitress urges long noodles for a long life, though I've come craving seafood dumplings, the pink hint of shrimp through translucent skin steaming and slippery and accompanied by salty dipping sauce. My waitress sets a paper dragon at my elbow, bad luck eat alone on New Year's. Drum corps beat out anthems in the street. Firecrackers hiss, pop, scaring off evil spirits. Dragons converge at the corner, shuffling a makeshipft two-step until one glides back, nuzzles the drummers' shoulders, their necks, hoists its serpentine body to the noodle shop and nudges the door open. Its eyes blink patiently, its gap-toothed smile waiting while the hostess slides a red envelope between its teeth, saving us all. I say bring me long noodles for a long life, noodles with egg and vegetable, bring me seafood dumplings that dissolve on my tongue. If I could would I become the generous hostess, easy with luck, her heap of red envelopes eager for takers? Or the hot boy inside the dragon's head, flushed beneath his blazing mask? Or the one who tugs the long tail, invisibly dancing? Poof! someone could say, transforming us all into dragons who bring good luck. Oh, bring me long noodles, bring me spicy sauce to sting my tongue; promise me good fortune, prosperity: bring me almond cookies and orange slices; promise me grinning dragons each new year. Lynn Domina This work is the author's work; it appears here with the permission of the author. We would like to remind our readers that it is a violation of copyright law to distribute this or any other poem appearing on the website without the express permission of the author. |
