Nuclear Family
We sat laughing in a diner booth
in Soho, grease on the stainless
steel walls, four of us,
tight against the world.
The Lithuanian waitress served
our coffee and blueberry pancakes.
Seeing us happy together she asked if it
could work if she married her black fiancée.
I didn’t know what to tell her. Marriage is
complicated— full of compromise. And
however much they love she will never
understand race in America.
If I had time I would have told her
our stories. How we met and blended our
lives. Instead we paid for our meal
and went into the street.
Vera Kewes Salter has published a chapbook titled In Lewy’s Body with Finishing Line Press, 2024. Their individual poems are published in a variety of journals.
The Marbled Sigh 