Favor de No Tocar Television (Gracias)

Says the sign
parenthetically thanking customers
at the Taqueria Arandas

No tocar, especially not today
Because everyone is watching
Los Estados Unidos
lose to Ghana
(Ghana?)

Riveted
The way we remember people used to be
watching the World Series.

The waitresses sit in the booth
beneath the TV.
Neat and clean, with their hair pulled back
and squealing with excitement,
then disappointment
as the U.S. shoots and misses.

Shoots and misses.

With one remarking to the others
that the guy whose header hit the goalpost
es guapo.

We came for the $2.29 breakfast:
Two scrambled, refrieds, jamon o bacon, corn tortillas
and the green sauce that gets our head up.
But stayed as the clock wound down.

We must have been in our 20s before we saw soccer
but have come to appreciate it, grudgingly.
Now the coffee has us wishing we were young again
and thinking, We could play this game.

The young business type with the laptop
The wrinkled working guy in the Astros cap
The hippie-ish Anglo couple
The dishwasher from the back
The squealing waitresses

Everyone on edge now
as he clock winds down
and the clock stops
catching the world
in a net.

(Gracias)