PARTY PERSON

All alone in a crowded room,
a drink in my hand….
Do they call this the cocktail hour
before the big meal or is now
called preprandials?
How do you spell that?
Is it preprandial or pre-prandial?
Knowing nobody,
feeling like the stain
I just left when I put my glass
with ice down for a moment
on a wooden book shelf along
the wall of this enormous library
looking room. “Uh oh!” I uttered
or muttered out loud,
but nobody heard me.
"Ooops.!" A waitress did.
With a smile on her face,
with napkins in one hand
she wiped up the circle of my stain.
Then she offered me
tiny toothpicked hors d’oeuvres
on the silver platter in her other hand.
I took one piece of something
and said “Thank you!”
I looked at the big toothpick
that shishkabobed the “something”
and wondered about the
yellow cellophane paper
on the end of these toothpicks.
How do they make these toothpicks?
When she walked away
I looked at the wooden shelf.
No damage. “Phew!”
No ring was left behind.
Sometimes I wish disappearing
with a napkin wipe would work
as easy for me. But only sometimes....

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009