Coffee

We line up ready to go rounds with the day.

We greet each other with “Early enough for you?” The same greeting as always.

Tired thoughts look out from behind

tired eyes. Thoughts that are still

cozy under the covers.

I ask the cabby behind me

to take me to work (in just one moment).

I greet the server with “Early enough for you?” She laughs and gives me my coffee.

I use that laugh later in round one.

All the birds of the spring day

get up and tell rosy fingered dawn;

everything that happened last night.

This is the conversation the cabby listens to when he stares at the slick darkness of his drink.

—Jonathan Stewart

[27]