At the correspondents dinner

they joke about

a room full of narcissists.

Everybody laughs

self consciously

for a few seconds

and then it’s almost quiet

and amid the chairs squeaking

and muffled grunting

around the round

tables

a man waits in vain

wanting only to hear his name

spoken from the podium

and a woman checks her teeth

in the reflection

of a shiny knife.

–Danny Grosso