Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal

Having Breakfast with the King of Spain and Abraham Lincoln

I was having breakfast
with the King of Spain
and Abraham Lincoln
at the Holiday Inn.

They did not speak much and
I gave them their space.
The King of Spain drank black
coffee and ate a

boiled egg and nothing else.
Abraham Lincoln
played with the breadcrumbs in
his beard. He ate pancakes

with maple syrup and
drank a cold beer. I
was eating a Denver
Omelet with hash browns.

I drank coffee with cream.
The waitress forgot
my toast. I still tipped her,
but the King of Spain

and Abraham Lincoln
left an I.O.U.
When they left the waitress
flipped them the bird.

 


Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal is the author of Raw Materials (Pygmy Forest Press), Make the Light Mine (Kendra Steiner Editions), and Peering into the Sun (Poet’s Democracy). He lives in California and works in the mental health field in Los Angeles.