Alicia Ostriker

At the Revelation Restaurant    

Ecclesiastes sits across the table
and whenever I start to whine
he starts to laugh

sometimes so heartily and suddenly
that he spills his soup—
Buddha (the waiter) looks sympathetic

I read the fine print
on his enlightenment special
reject birth get off the wheel

Mama Gaia flounces from the kitchen
exclaiming: Must we despise our bodies
just because the priests and the politicians

the professors and the corporations
the fashion industry and even Plato
all tell us to? Mama, I like my body

washing and touching itself in the bath
was the beginning, so sweet, then dancing
and kissing—too late to stop now

since I know my eyeballs and clitoris
will turn to muck or dust and the process
of death unless I am very lucky

will be painful
I intend to order
a good dinner this evening