social protocol

the shrimp popper button having been pushed,
and then played in triumph,
the happy little group ate their
shrimp perfection meal and
washed it down with tasty gossip.
and a bit of bubbly, too.
then, the night nearly done,
each and every one went home,
and settled into bed,
burping shrimp vapors into
the warm night air,
the sky a virtual parakeet
of stars.

--Carl Miller Daniels (This poem also appears in my book Saline, published by Interior Noise Press in 2014. It was first published in Citizens for Decent Literature, Issue #7, July 2013.)