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Earl Fowler

Waitresses and Pilgrims

Updated: Nov 6

It’s 1972 and Leonard Cohen

hesitates to ask a waitress

her name at a late-night

café on Eighth Avenue

and Van Morrison is singing

about how my waitress

my waitress my waitress

said it was coming down.


Tom Waits is noticing

how the cash register rings

and how the waitress sings

eggs and sausage

and a side of toast.


Joni Mitchell’s coyote

picks up her scent

on his fingers

while he’s watching

the waitress’s legs.


And I just found

a note I scrawled

on the inside cover

of Myths to Live By

by Joseph Campbell

freshly bought in 1972

at a Greyhound bus stop,

a note about a tawny moth

trapped between the window

and a napkin dispenser

as the lead pipe morning falls

and the waitress calls

eggs and sausage

and a side of toast.


Leonard was dreaming

the waitress was an angel

manifesting a body

condensed from air

who would make him a saint

or at least a cherubinic pilgrim

by wrapping him

in the sound of closing wings

during fabulous lovemaking.


I fantasized about coffee

not made from dishwater

as I freed the moth

from cupped hands

while cradling Styrofoam

with a leaky lid

and got back on the bus.

There ain’t no cure for sludge.

— Earl Fowler

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And if one of those eggs had contained an embryonic Dixie Chick, the waitress would have looked out the window as your bus pulled out of town. And wiping away a tear from her eyes, she would have glanced at the liberated moth as she sang, "Goodbye, Earl!"

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Boy, this bus is snug as a trunk! Golly, Wanda, what are we doing at the lake?

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On a bus with Cohen and Mitchell and Waits and Morrison and you would be a magical ride. As long as no one let Van the Man drive.

Beautiful images.

The friendly waitress at a former favourite greasy spoon that served $3 bacon and eggs would always ask, “Would you like a good coffee wth that?” alluding to tea-coloured dishwater in the Pyrex warmer. Finally I said I would. “But, where can I get one?” She was less friendly after that.

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There aint no cure for sludge.

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