An ode to a coffee lover
Do you know how Italians like their coffee?
A single shot of espresso
Then they come back for more(if needed)
We can grab books on our way
Charlotte Bronte? Jane Austen? William Dalrymple?
Tell me about the complexity of your protagonist
And I'll tell you mine.
Show me the lines that made your eyes narrow
Your heart sink and rise within a blink of an eye
Tell me how it altered your persistent philosophy
Tell me if you had an existential crisis
Maybe a few sleepless nights?
The substance in there that made you question
your breathing, blinking and sighing.
All this over a very small, concentrated cup of coffee
And after
I can come close to you
A little closer than usual
Smell the coffee in your breath
Get a little turned on maybe
Recreate the image of you sipping that coffee
With those innocent lips
Then when no more can be recreated
We can slip into each others lips.
Into numbness
or the characters in our books
One known in a world of unknowns
Maybe after 30 years
we can write our own love stories
and histories and pasts
and adventures and songs
that led to the end
The end being a new beginning
and the new being beginning being an end.