News comes back your cancer has spread,
so we go out to celebrate
you not being dead
yet.
A flock of white-coated waiters
circle us, ready to dive
like gulls over a school of fish
sunning themselves in shallow water.
We order oysters Rockefeller because
they sound fancy and we’ve never
had them before.
By the time the dessert cart comes,
we are sullen—overwhelmed
by choice and
future.
That night, I hold you as we lay,
each silently crying.
No words.
Not even about the buttery breadcrumbs
or pecorino
that helped
mask the brininess
of our shells ripped apart.
Brad Kavo is an English teacher who lives in Pittsburgh. His debut chapbook, Butterflied, was winner of the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Chapbook Series by Lines + Stars Press, and his poetry has also appeared in journals such as Ninth Letter, Gordon Square Review, The Notre Dame Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, and Beyond Words, among others. You can find him on Instagram at @bradkavo.
Photo credit: Elle Hughes