Taking the catering
truck to Carlisle
for an afternoon wedding

enough food
prepared in back
to feed six hundred

of Nicholas county’s
most prominent
and well heeled

the meals were cooked
at four this morning,
how the kitchen clanged,

all hands on deck,
a coordinated
chaos, a whirlwind

of culinary arts
choreographed
spontaneously

chopping, slicing
grinding, kneading
bobbing, weaving

metal pans make
a racket, oven doors
open and slam

scents of mornay sauce
and roast beef
heavy in the humid heat

a cook stirs sticks
of butter into fifty pounds
of mashed potatoes

stations emerge
as the dinners complete
to pack and assemble

wrap and label
bundle up in
insulated blankets

when it’s all loaded
they take five minutes
to eat, then quickly leave,

running a little late,
he grabs his keys
and phone

from the counter,
realizes he left his
wallet at home

but there’s no time
for retrieving it,
rich folks don’t like to wait.

Halfway to the wedding site
in his rear view
he sees the lights,

red and blue,
the siren says
“Pull over”

the officer doesn’t ask
“Do you know why
I’m stopping you?”

but says instead,
“Where are you from
and why are you here?”

he knows he was going
six miles faster than the limit,
prays to God for only a ticket,

she sits beside him,
frozen, only one month
out of Mexico,

she grabs his knee
tells him to speak,
whispers please

He tells the officer
he is a cook
from Lexington

the officer suspects
his accent
and his skin

“Open up the back,
let’s take a look”

But the sheer
quantity of food
leaves him unconvinced

“You don’t have your license?”
“Don’t you know that
we have laws in this country?”

she gets an idea,
grabs some paperwork
from the clipboard on the dash

it is the work ticket
for the wedding.
The officer raises his eyebrow.

“Oh this food is for
the Judge’s daughter’s
shin dig!”

“He’d have my ass
if I don’t let you go”

At the event
she thinks she’s
never seen

a lawn so green,
a landscape so lush,
so much opulence

after six years
saving she came
to him,

so they might live
a life together,
to work

side by side
long days and nights,
to feed large parties,

and she only hopes
that one day
he and she, too

will have a grand
wedding party,
with friends and family

all about, of wine
and song and dance
she dreams,

and afterwards,
she won’t have to clean.