Market Place

13 May 2021

I wonder who I’ll see?
What am I making for dinner?
We can just go somewhere but
We’ve gone somewhere for the past two weeks
And I’ve spent hecka money

I don’t remember the last meal I cooked
Maybe it was the Korean bowls I took the Watson’s
Because they had a new baby
And when you have a new baby
In America
Apparently,
It’s customary to stop cooking for at least a month
Your husband or boyfriend can’t cook either,
Apparently, they forget how so others step in
Even single dads
With four kids
Who are selling a home while looking for one to buy
In a market where California transplants are buying everything up
With their San Francisco money

I wonder who I’ll see,
What can Phina eat
That’s gluten free
And dairy free
And yet still tasty
And won’t make her feel left out

At least she doesn’t have Celiac Disease
Like Judah, the family friend who will never have Panda Express
See to him, even a pinprick of gluten means death,
it’s like fentanyl, instant death
Causing his stomach to cannibalize itself,
it’s like Kryptonite,
It’s like driving blind
It’s like wanting to stay awake while eating sleeping pills
It’s like…anyways.

Maybe she can have a little,
Of gluten and dairy
Just a smidge
Un poquito
Like my dad says, “What do you mean she can’t have milk? She can’t have milk? At all?”
But he doesn’t understand,
Allergies are myths to him
They are not real
And as much as I can quote sources and medical journals
And say, “Dad, her doctor says she can’t have gluten or milk
He is still like, “Really, not even a little bit?”
And for your information, my dad does not visit the doctor ever.

I wonder who I’ll see.
All I can think of are dinners with gluten
But I know that even a little will bloat her stomach
And that’s not a good look
To look puffy and cute but still puffy in the tummy.

So I drive to Chik-Fil-A
And wait in the drive thru with all of Boise and Meridian
Again, on a Friday night.