Coffee

Of course the coffee nodule

is neither cherry nor berry,

just as you are neither you nor

you before "you" hold the ceramic

cup in that sacred way and weigh

it gratefully, and wait for your hands

to say when the temperature

of the darkness

will love your tongue and mouth

best. You sip and smell

simultaneously. You are soothed.

You are less dim. The sun

rises just above the blue rim

of your stupor. Shapes of

thought become visible,

work becomes viable,

wants become focused.

O thank you Arabia,

thank you Ethiopia,

thank you Sudan and South

America, Indonesia . . .

Such chants continue

silently in your mind,

which small sips of shade

have clarified. Your heart

stumbles into a pace

that brings awareness

to your brain in soft

brown sacks. You begin to flirt

with thought, consider

sociability, tolerate noise,

nearly nod Yes to  life.

You want to tell coffee again

that you love it, but you’re not

quite ready to speak,

and anyway coffee knows.

coffee knows, knows what you need.

hans ostrom 2020