Mike's Coffee


Coffee
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An old man looks out his window, watching a bus pull
away and cross the intersection. He turns from the window
holding his coffee cup, swirling it although there is no
coffee in it, considers taking a bath. She always told him not
too much coffee, just the one cup in the morning, and
that he should remember to bathe every day, as these were
the kinds of things he would soon forget once she was
gone. He places his cup among others in the sink. The
bathtub is clean and damp, still warm. He sits on the toilet
and watches as the tub fills. By custom, he draws too
much water, so that some always runs out the overflow as
he gets in, leaving behind as much water as will fit,
making a sound he's always liked hearing. He images a
spider trapped in the overflow, washing down the pipes.
As he slides into the water he thinks of her, and although
she is not here to scrub his back he smiles. His toes surface
and submerge, and he watches them break through floating
rafts of soap bubbles, then sink again, like a shipwrecked
crew of drowning men. After his bath the water circles
down the drain, but without his glasses he cannot tell if the
whirlpool drains with or counter to the clock, although he
understands or thinks he remembers that it always turns the
same way, like a dog circling nose to tail on a carpet looking
for that one best spot. The word "coriolis" slowly
surfaces and submerges again in his mind, and eyes closed
he watches it as from a moving vehicle, experiences it as
he would a neon sign flashing past in the nighttime. He
makes a note on his mental blackboard to watch closely
next time which way the water circles as it drains. He smiles
again, as he can have his coffee now that he has bathed.

-McNeilley

~ Beau Blue Presents ~ <> http://members.cruzio.com/~jjwebb
Bill Minor * Robert Sward <> Internet Broadsides
Morton Marcus * Renay <> Contemporary American Poetry
~ Blue's Cruzio Cafe ~ <> http://members.cruzio.com/~cafe
.

Relevant Pages

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