A brief history of coffee

From goats high

On a mountain in Ethiopia

To Sufi mystics swirling

The name of God

And traders jealous of their trade

Guarding close the secrets

Of the qahveh khaneh.

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Bitter seeds burned

And boiled

Oiled the wheels of

Innovation and Enlightenment

In Penny Universities

Rolling out ideas

All hours from

Vienna to York

Voltaire’s fifty cups a day

And Bach’s Coffee Cantata

Conversational cross-pollination

Of thought across a continent

All thanks

To thieves and murderers.

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Smuggling seeds and saplings

Out of Yemen

Into Europe and beyond

From Mocha to Java

Amsterdam to Cayenne and a soldier

Seducing a Governor’s wife

To get beans into Brasil.

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International espionage

Global trade

Genocide

Adultery and

The blessing of a Pope

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…all for a cup of

Bitter black beans brewed

For breakfast.