The Design in My Coffee Cup Is Puckering

by Narph   Feb 23, 2013


Right now I'm sitting in a coffee shop
where the hipster thumbdrive playlist
is thrumming two clicks too loud,
and the mocha I'm drinking is as sweet
as the man behind the counter,
and just as thoroughly unsatisfying.
My head's plugged into Spotify but I'm tuned in
to the caffeinated twittering
of the coffee junkies junking around me, and I'm waiting
for the ironic country music to end because, frankly,
it's making me antsy.

I'm breathing in the wet dry thick thin steam
so particular to espresso grounds,
wondering when the weather's gonna clear up, and while
my swanky new computer looks engaging,
right now the internet seems as fast and free
as bad porn, but less fulfilling.
I'm watching the family across the room crack
cookies and smiles into their tea cups, codifying
the collegiate dream, and I just want so badly
to write something great, but there's nothing
here to write about and I don't have anything
worthwhile to say.

So I stare intelligently at my computer,
ramble about atmosphere and glare critically
at my fingernails. I watch the college students
trudge through their textbooks, and pretend I'm
free and clever and capable and unattached and unattainable and
while I'm being superior,
my coffee melts in its saucer, and
the leafy foam design from the smiling barista
puckers in the rising chocolate like bad fruit.
I take a sip, thinking about ruined aesthetics
and I wonder what it would take to make me happy,
what it would take for me to be satisfied.

3


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Latest Comments

  • 10 years ago

    by Robert Gardiner

    Wonderful Work!!!

  • 10 years ago

    by tainted melody

    This was so untraditional and i loved that about it. It's funny because just the other day I was trying to write a coffee shop poem lol I couldn't quite make it work but this was great :)

  • 10 years ago

    by Poet on the Piano

    [Weekly Contest Comment: 3/4/13]

    There is a term in psychology called free association that was a method to have patients in therapy say whatever comes to one's mind and see what they are holding back....this poem immediately made me think of this because the poet has this wondrous sense of not describing but showing the ambience to us readers. It was very tasteful too in that I find coffee shops intriguing.... there's always something of the arts there too and so many creative people. I loved the imagery and sounds the poet place right in front of me, and how the end left me thoughtful....how everything is connected in the end with that one mindset of finding a source of satisfaction.

  • 10 years ago

    by Saerelune

    Triple

  • 10 years ago

    by Saerelune

    Sorry, double post.