{"id":1439,"date":"2021-09-14T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T07:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2021-09-14T07:29:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T07:29:00","slug":"two-poems-daily-i-fall-in-love-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/?p=1439","title":{"rendered":"Two poems: Daily I fall in love with …"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Poem: “Daily I Fall In Love With Waitresses” <\/strong>
\nby Elliot Fried<\/p>\n

Daily I fall in love with waitresses
\nwith their white bouncing name tags
\nand white rubber shoes.
\nI love how they bend over tables
\npouring coffee.
\nTheir perky breasts hover above potatoes
\nlike jets coming in to LAX
\nhang above the suburbs\u2014
\nshards of broken stars.
\nI feel their fingers
\nroughened by cube steaks softened with grease
\nslide over me.
\nTheir hands and lean long bodies
\nkeep moving so…
\nfumbling and clattering so harmoniously
\nthat I am left overwhelmed, quivering.
\nDaily I fall in love with waitresses
\nwith their cream-cheese cool.
\nThey tell secrets in the kitchen
\nand I want them.
\nI know them.
\nThey press buttons creases burgers buns\u2014
\ntheir legs are menu smooth.<\/p>\n

They have boyfriends or husbands or children
\nor all.
\nThey are french dressing worldly\u2014
\nthey know how ice cubes clink.
\nTheir chipped teeth form chipped beef
\nand muffin syllabics.
\nDaily I fall in love with waitresses.
\nThey are Thousand Island dreams
\nbut they never stand still long enough
\nas they serve serve serve.<\/p>\n

“Daily I Fall In Love With Waitresses,” by Elliot Fried, from Marvel Mystery Oil. \u00a9 Red Wind Books, 1991.<\/p>\n

\nSecond Poem: Daily I Fall in Love with Mechanics<\/strong>
\nby Susan Thurston<\/p>\n

in response to Daily I Fall in Love with Waitresses by Elliot Fried<\/p>\n

Daily I fall in love with mechanics
\nwith their smudged coveralls and names embroidered
\nover where their hearts just might be
\nand thick soled boots.
\nI love how they jack up my car
\nand press the pneumatic drill
\nto my tires and with hip
\npress lean into the whir of liberation
\nnuts and bolts falling
\nreleased from so much spinning
\nand holding everything tight in place.
\nI feel their hands
\nroughened by spark plugs and washer fluid
\nyet sweetened by overflowing oil pans
\nslide over me.
\nTheir arms and shoulders
\nremind me of deep river valleys
\nand other places where we could tumble
\nafter setting the parking brake…
\nfumbling and clutching so melodiously
\nI am left grateful for their engine knowledge.
\nDaily I fall in love with mechanics
\nwith their grease smudged bad boy grins
\nand come hither wide opening garage doors.
\nThey tell secrets in the pit
\nand I want them.
\nI know them.
\nThey slip belts back into place
\ntheir legs diesel dark<\/p>\n

They have lovers or spouses or children
\nor all.
\nThey are strut bearing reliable\u2014
\nthey know how timing belts twist.
\nTheir toothpick punctuated grins
\nreassure you they are giving you the best
\ndeal in town and they would not let you drive
\nwithout checking all your fluid levels.
\nDaily I fall in love with mechanics.
\nThey are better than Free Air
\nwant my vehicle to be safe and sound
\nbut they never travel far enough
\nbefore pulling the next car into the station.<\/p>\n

\n“Daily I Fall in Love with Mechanics” by Susan Thurston. \u00a9 Susan Thurston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Poem: “Daily I Fall In Love With Waitresses” by Elliot Fried Daily I fall in love with waitresses with their white bouncing name tags [Read More]<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Marvel_mystery.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peter.murmann.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}