We learned poker-dice at Lily Marleen

Where the fat Aryan blond with the icy stare

Served us steaming Hungarian goulash

Cooked by his Japanese wife who peered

At us wordless from the crack in the kitchen

Door. At the bar presiding over the traffic

Of chits and change beyond the receipts

Impaled on a wire poke on a stand

By the adding machine beneath the whisky

And wine glasses hanging from their slots

Upside down, Aida of the dark eyes

Under her Rossana Podesta bangs smiled

Her brown Filipino smile at us. Smiling

She reminded us of the imminent end 

Of Happy Hour we had better order more

Bottles. Smiling she reminded herself

Of her love coming to fetch her from work

In the glass factory where he was a union

Member. Silently he materialized at the bar

And sat beside us and we exchanged knowing

Smiles. Nursing his drink he waited patiently

To take her home to the apartment in Pasay City

And over take-home pizza and spaghetti

They nursed their hopes for the wage increase

If nothing went wrong with the impeding

CBA after which they promised 

Fervently to tie the knot.

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