S ess reverse excess impress regress
blossom descend whiteness
hot brown smoke transparant
eviscerate steamy interior
intrusion by steel, sweet, violent addition
scraping and rounding,
disturb placid opacity.
Fractals.
Currents in the motor oil of imperial strength
Caffeinated like a nightmare of insomnia with basic cable
Smell of water, oily steam
Look up to silence. Elsewhere,
staring, words hung on front teeth,
wiry body language bespeaking want.
"Hey, 'scuse me, if you have a second..."
Familiar accent, so known, asking for a refill.
Almost put the words in his mouth.
May have heard entire language out of there.
Not too shabby.
Repeat. S, ess, reverse excess, impress, regress,
blossom, descend whiteness...
"So anyway...."
Clink.
Sigh heard. Hand on chin. Who is this?
Forward, forceful, blue? Hashbrowns and habitat?
Singleminded, unconsciously cruel, callous,
human, innocent, infuriating?
Or dark, moody, self-centered, businesslike,
domineering and of a stratified worldview?
Today: smooth charm, conversational genius.
Poser of pertinent questions but also
explicator of normality among the weird.
Gestures for each sound. How French.
The old men in careworn hats look over the crossword
at us, flirt with the waitresses.
Other young patrons come to pile greasy
foods into their bodies to stave off hangovers,
smoke and cloud up our air,
scream vibrancy and youth over
the implications of life's progresses found
on the faces of our servers and other patrons,
the faded beads by the door, the
never-changing dirtiness of the omnipotent orange.
Our adopted mothers smile ribaldly,
speculating about the interpersonal dynamic
at our table (if they only knew),
refilling our cups and buying us toast.
Paid waitress wages, they deserve more.
They are ours, we are theirs.
More atomic nutrition addition
peeling the ceiling off the tiny cup of whitening
Letting a wetting getting all up on fingers, thumb
building small towers with corrugated plastics,
small scale, pale fluid, puddle on paper napkin
Ink spread obscuring five-lined verses
Sucking fingers dry,
feeling space under nails with tongue,
drying spit with napkin left in ashtray
crumpled and defaced in so many written words, nonsense.
Brown slats to outside
Neon lights of liquor store
Bookshop and theatre nearby.
New sign after spring's annual windstorm barely noticed.
Dirty panes cleaned occasionally.
Exterior often dark with night's
all-consuming love of blackness;
sometimes the view painted by
tiny blurred lenses of rain,
seldom by snow, leaves,
often with only passers-by and amber streetlight.
Golden plastic cups for drinkable water,
usually with forgivable foreign objects
among the square ice.
I fish out specks
and inspect them upon the lustreless
slide, my knife, the spearing square
tine of a fork, the
reality-reversing concavity of a wet spoon.
The ride out there consists
of residences.
Regular people, well okay
the ideal middle American demographic
seems to lie along the path.
Tiger Mart marks the commercialization
past the green fence of the zoo
and the placid rows of historic, eccentric
homes, tree-replete, verdure,
so few "For Sale" signs.
Row of apartments, Russia aross the way,
wrought-iron fence built by a memory.
Passing India on the right, turning into Memphis,
Mexico's runty cousin next door vending tacos.
Winking traffic lights
are the red and green planets
among fixed amber stars.
Looking up from textbooks to imagine
what you are learning makes sense
when applied with Shakesperian punnery in mind.
Pens in readiness, tapping on table.
Silence so rare
sip coffee, jelly toast, scramble eggs.
Hissing stove, thrumming jukebox, wafting smoke.
Phone answered, register rung.
Recognized folk from across the coffeeshop.
At the table, look at one another.
Hint of contorted funny faces to mask
being two feet away with nothing to say.
Laughter earlier, laughter later.
It is here we have lived, observing the passage of time
in the bottom of a brown ceramic mug.
Descend whiteness, blossom, reverse,
s ess regress.
Refill, repeat.