Demeanor

The son-in-law is a goat from the waist down

his hooves seeking beneath the table’s skirt

the mother’s parted thighs, or so we imagine,

given the angled decanting of her wine glass

she seems to have to tip forward to drink from.

The father forking through his pearl onions

has just reiterated his point, the daughter,

aside, accepts the waiter’s bottle, in exchange

for the camera he also has to accommodate

in light of her advance through the aperture,

the photo forming as they squish together more.

M. K. Sukach is the author of two chapbooks, Something Impossible Happens (Big Wonderful Press) and Impression of a Life (Corrupt Press). His fiction and poetry appears in a number of journals, including jmww, The Poetry Storehouse, Connotation Press, Spoon River Poetry Review, Construction Magazine, Yemassee, and others. Closer look: www.mksukach.com.