First Date

At the Li Family Restaurant, Beijing
ducks hang inviting and lively by their necks
in an oven at the entrance. Later they spin, 
game on tables, surrounded by thimbles 
of white fire liquor. We wrap duck parts in 
pancakes with scallions, chew and swallow. 
I pan the spinning room, rapt and hot from ovens, 
this liquor to find you, slurred in conversation,
working yourself into the flavor, spicing tonight to distract
from the taste you might leave in my mouth.