Lizzy Burnam 🐞

It’s the one 
right off the highway, quick 
and easy to access 
for the folks just passing through. 
Otherwise 
no one would come here 
except the locals who were alive 
to see the sign
before the paint peeled. 

The server comes, a woman, 
she takes your order and says 
something wise about 
the making of omelets 
from eggs. 
She can tell you’re not from here. 

It’s not so much 
that the food is exceptional, 
but that it’s always served 
really, really hot. 
Even the coffee burns 
like a star in your throat 
on the way down. 

Let’s attempt to revise a sentence 
by the writer James Baldwin: 
Maybe home is not a place, 
but some sense of lingering, 
hard to scrub away 
like grease on a spoon.