Side Dish

                     by Brenda Joy Dobson

Like comfort food,

she was always there,

picking up pieces of

his cheese-grated defeat...

the women he slept with,

the kids who rejected him,

the business deals that failed,

ideas that never seemed to gel.

As doors slammed shut on each souffle,

she settled for crumbs,

from his table of promises,

and as they fell from his lips,

she licked them up,

except for the ones

she saved in a side dish.

bjd