Mealtimes by Sue Burge

Mealtimes the dining table lies in state ringed with antique chairs but every meal is taken at the white formica breakfast bar even Sunday roast spreading its fatty tendrils on the cooling plates four teak stools in a row facing a blank wall each brushstroke visible the food tastes of resignation my father simmers with the potatoes the knives and forks are just knives and forks the formica is heat…