LRSN's Greek Festival...

i rode my bike to David Larsen's last night. David was having me and Brandon B. and Alli W. over for dinner. David just got back from Greece and wanted to have us over for dinner and to share his Greece photos.


David has a lot of neat bookshelves. He had this bookshelf that curved down the wall with books mounted on it curving down the wall. That bookshelf was outside his kitchen. This bookshelf was inside his bedroom.


David and Brandon talked a little bit about Ancient Greek. David and Brandon's legs were in front of where Alli and i were sitting. Alli and i talked a little about Library Science and San Jose State and the new M.I.A. record.


David fed us so much Greek-style lamb and horiatiki (Greek salad) and fried zucchini and Ouzo and feta and red wine that it felt like my Thea Vivi's apartment in Piraeus. I ate 4 lamb chops. David kept feeding me lamb chops even after i told him i couldn't eat anymore. This reminded me of my Thea Vivi and i told him that. And then David brought out a yellow karpoozi (watermelon) for dessert and we all said we couldn't possibly fit anything else in our bellies but we ate the watermelon up too.


We stood in the kitchen watching David cook and Alli chopped onions and that made her cry and i kicked this giant painting that David has been working on with my heel and Brandon's head looked pretty good in front of it.


I grew up reading Greek comics. I grew up reading "adult" Greek comics. They were "adult" in that they were political with some nudity rather than pornographic. I couldn't read Greek as a kid but i read them anyway. These comics on David's nightstand were kids comics.


Usually when i think of fried zucchini i think of bowling allys or maybe Antioch, CA. But for some reason when David cooks fried zucchini i thought of AEK football, stray Athenian cats and men in foustanellas.


I noticed that two of my books were on David nightstand. My translation of Siarita Kouka's Benthos and a copy of my new chapbook The Moveable Ones. This made me feel pretty good and i had to keep myself from picking up the books too much because that might be misconstrued as egotism.

I rode my bike home with a belly full of Hellas and sweat on my upperlip. It took me about 10 minutes to ride home. I woke up this morning still tasting last night's meal. My mouth tasted like Greek Easter and i thank David for that.