Haiku 2023–249

an impromptu date

with chili on the menu

nourishing our love

— —

The text was a simple one — “Want to meet somewhere?”

When 9:00 approached last night, my wife and I found ourselves wrapping up an evening of activities at separate places in the city and headed towards home. Neither of us had had the opportunity to eat dinner so we decided we should eat somewhere together. The suburbs don’t have a lot of choices for romance after 9:00 on a Tuesday. As such, we ended up at a local chili parlor (Skyline, of course!).

Our fellow diners that evening consisted of two mechanics from the local garbage haulers having lunch two tables over and a lone middle-aged man eating a hot dog behind me. The soundtrack consisted of waitresses yelling orders to the steam table across the room. Sitting over two plates of chili spaghetti, we caught up on each other’s days and discussed topics both weighty and not. On the surface, it could almost be confused for a mundane end of a typical day for two normal people in an average suburb…

It wasn’t.

It’s hard to describe, but my beloved had a brightness in her eyes last night that let me know all was truly right in her world at that moment. I can only hope that she saw the same in me. Nothing else mattered in those moments but she and I and anything that flowed between us. That is worthy of haiku.