Dinner of Joy

what does joy taste like?
is a question that did not arise

last night as the eight of us sat

around the table enjoying the meal

that David bought planned prepared

and served us in such a caring way

with pride and humility and love

and you could taste it in the tomatoes

that actually tasted like tomatoes

that Kasey made and brought

as instructed by David

and Odette’s Sri Lankan desert

of which we guessed the ingredients–

vanilla cardamon egg brown sugar–

and the roast beef cold cuts

and the mint and parsley soup thing

and the non-alcoholic drinks–

rose white wine champagne

and a sort of Boulevardier cocktail thing–

with green beans and zucchini dishes

and finally stilton and cheddar cheese

of course sourced from the UK

it was all just so lovely to eat

as we sat around getting to know

each other and chit chatting about food

and travel and the various ways we connect

and biking around Berlin and the fears of crashing

and our relationship to cooking and crowds

and eventually someone pulled out a picture

of a sheep’s ass and we all couldn’t believe

the shapeliness of it and then the jokes

started to fly and of course the Welsh

were brought up and of course loneliness

is the thing that brought us all together

into this analog circle in this sea of internet slop

within which we live with our AI assisted brains

and towards ten thirty we even went around

and everyone told a story of the last time

they experienced a moment of joy