Peking Duck

Strange night ate alone / at a duckhouse / drawn in by its 'pass' / health rating

Strange night ate alone

at a duckhouse

drawn in by its 'pass'

health rating

and the printed recommendation

of its sister shop

up the road closed (‘did not pass?’)

Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash

Sat alone

between pairs of gluttons

wolfing food

sucking fingers

heaping plates

with duck and dumplings and beef and pork and rice and rice and rice

poking into the slab cave of a giant crab

boiling over fire

quibbling if ‘whole’ should include the wings and legs

I face the butcher of a sord of headless ducks

slicing, plating, sending out

but never out to me.

The meal-mates to my left offer me their scraps

because my duck won’t come.

A pastor from Michigan

Planting parishes.

San Francisco, Pakistan, and his son

building wealth for the kingdom

fasting & prayer

My meal mates to my right

poke into the surcharge on the bill

tip on top?!

The pastor tells me the sister store is better

the duck smoked

brown meat, he says he prefers brown meat.

I eat a bit

pay a lot

wander back to my hotel

and edit audio to support the immanent launch

of a man called God.