Trolley Side

San Francisco was my favorite place

I loved to get a hot drink

From the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

Always picking my shiny silver mug

Sporting their simple logo

The perfect size, and grip,

An opening with optimal flow

No weak dribbling drip

I know I'll never find another like it

We met there that day

Instead of at My Love's favorite spot

The one with the bagels, closer to his digs

I don’t have work, so we went out to play

It’s a luxury, but we took the trolley

I wore my favorite coat that day

The wool one with the pink-lined hood

I hopped jauntily up onto the line

Felt his hand tighten around mine

Heart racing

My Love's always been fun

Quick with a funny word

It only took him one leap to reach the back

While I gingerly stepped over

At least a dozen legs

Just as I make it to the edge

The overhead jolts into use

Motion sent me toppling down

Face came inches away

From the gravelly ground

My tumbler tumbled and shook

As, at last, it rolled out of view

A kind hand grasped and righted me anew

Sitting as quickly as space would allow

I thanked the stranger

Looks and applause abound

My Love felt so bad that it wasn’t his hand

All my worries were for my prized coffee chalice

K.B. Silver

☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋☕🚋

This is based on a memory from when my now husband and I were dating. We lived in the greater San Francisco Bay area at the time. I experience vertigo when moving on platforms, such as buses, escalators, or sidewalks at airports. It’s funny, the thing I remember most clearly about this spell is the coffee cup I lost that day. I still lament losing it from time to time. Seriously, though, to the passenger kind enough to save my face, I remember you also; applause, applause!!! If you can believe it, the trolley in the picture runs the same line we took that day.