Eat Your Words

The table was set in the usual way
As we sat around the beautiful buffet
The lonely music remembered how it had felt love.
"Preparation!" she said taking off her oven glove.

"Lord Jesus Christ, as you blessed many with the five loaves and the two fishes, we thank you for the food we are about to eat and all of the things you have blessed us with. Amen."

A silence followed that carved into time. The sound of scraping broke it.
It was the cutlery that spoke first. They stabbed at things that could not be uttered.
Words came later but my glass held more meaning than they could.
"I need more water, my glass is empty." It slurred some sentence as it sloshed into my glass.
We poked at things. "Honey..." It was not only the table between us. "...Pass the salt."
It was the silence that filled our mouths that filled our hearts and filled our minds.
"I'm full mom." We always took what we could not eat. "Manors."
I sat to watch the candle burn as it flickered over my slice of life.
We plugged our mouths with food to eat the silence but we ate from the inside out.
What a beautiful cover, beautiful smells and tastes and sounds to cover the silence. I chewed on it a bit.
"How was work?" he answered with two nods and a smack of the lips.
Silence burned at my throat and echoed through my stomach. Or perhaps it was indigestion.
My eyes had feasted enough but there was always the overwhelming question, "May I be excused?"