My older grandson
just started work
as a food runner,
emphasis on runner,
two steep flights
between the kitchen 
and a popular rooftop
deck at a mid-scale
gaslight-district bistro.

He carries a family
tradition of bar/restaurant
work (hospitality industry) 
now [sigh] a somewhat
profane appropriation
of this pillar of Islam and
many indigenous cultures
elsewhere–and did you know
Desert Storm was first
called Desert Crusade?) 
but I digress.

Like his mother, father, 
multiple grandparents, aunts,
uncles and cousins, Brando
has the chance to learn 
two very valuable skills.
And after two hours 
of stories from us all
over Fathers’ Day
dinner he knows it.

First, the art of being
polite to people who aren’t
being polite to you.
Second, how to be
actively attentive
to the needs of others
while remaining
mostly invisible.