space bubble

The tired white diner mug

And hot sauce bottle refilled too many times

Brings my mind back home, downtown

The cafe lulled in a six a.m. silence

There’s a semi-straight pencil line

Vividly contrasting my quiet calm

Nurturing the humming happiness of bittersweet coffee

Make me an observer, instead of a participant,

Of the happy tense chaos

Springing up on either side of me

Brown on white on white,

The unintrusive rings of coffee

Invaded by elbows,

Crumpled cracker wrappers screaming over the silence