Monday Game Forfeit Part Two
And here is my second forfeit, as promised for you winning the Monday book title game.
This is a poem I wrote in early 2006 while I still fancied myself a bit of a poet. The story behind this is that I was/am very shy and there was a hangout on campus that I wanted to into very much, but I was intimidated by the ‘regulars’. Eventually, I did go inside…
Enjoy.
Coffee Shop Poet Wannabe
by JM
Door stalked, admired, cursed
from across the tar and cracked pavement.
Should I? Could I? Dare I? Oh, yes,
for today, my sweet coffee shop,
today is the day of reckoning.
Jingle-jingle, jingle-jingle of the door.
Ah, a new girl, just a little bit of something,
perhaps sweet or perhaps spice
for the usual, eccentric pot.
“Um, I’d like a bottle of water please,?
as if the purchase of water
is a sensible action rather than
a dollar twelve for a plastic bottle.
“And the turkey…? mumbling ‘sandwich.’
“The turkey panini with the gouda??
Go with the gouda! Go with the gouda!
Don’t break code! Possible emergency evacuation!
“Yes please,? and with no voice wobble,
no long stares, just glances and whispers.
Thank the benevolent coffee shop deities
for their small yet wondrous favors.
Order filled? Empty table? Affirmative.
Sitting down slowly, laser beam stares.
‘Flannel shirt, blue jeans, foreign body accepted,’
and a return to muffled conversation.
Put down my water, sandwich, and notebook.
A notebook? Ah. Acceptance melting into welcome.
Losing myself in the words, objective completed,
writing, wondering what the hell a panini is.
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