Mornings with coffee
Dull. Morning dragon, you grind your teeth at me, & nothing happened
then the coffee you gulp in ground assaults to cure five hangovers.
Then off to your notebooks, & notecards, your pens, & your scorecards,
your prayers, your intentions, your dog, & his bone.
Fourteen years of marriage, & frankly, you bore me. I don’t drink anymore,
but bland, base, & boring to you, I give up & drizzle myself with bourbon—
with nothing on my stomach besides. Churning, not knowing your favor
here’s what I say:
I pray everyday, Saints Mary, Matt Talbot & Anthony find us, we’ve lost our way.
In the middle of life, in a sharp thorny wood, the skies are dark at midday,
& since she cruelly gave sideways a look outside Old St. Michael’s today,
at the 2nd St. Bridge I sliced off my hand in the sight of the sweet buds of May.
I’m bleeding & bored by us, but what a curiosity to see! Our marriage
an alchemy of dung & straw, two things so dull they exploded.
13 thoughts on "Mornings with coffee"
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your poems this month were not dull-thanks for sharing them once again this june. screw your hand back on!
donkey schön
I love the ampersands in this, they drive the words forward, pushing, pushing.
Happy Lexpomo!
happy #LexPoMo Arwentella! (did you see what I did there?)
It’s been a blast to read you this month, Manny! You are changing and growing and going deeper with every poem it seems. Good on you! Come visit soon.
It is always a pleasure to visit. Thank you for your kindness and courtesy, and keeping me honest.
Manny! What can I say? There’s no one else like you. Thanks for leaving your word fireworks my sky.
Love you Lindy Lou Who!
I like the play of title
– like visiting yourself on your own deathbed
– the single spaced lines reflect the loneliness of marriage gone bad
-and always the images, overt & covert, piled on like Rembrandt
– then more than anything the heart: poured out
Your observations are rich. What a great summer kickoff it has been.
I like “in a sharp thorny wood” for its echo of the first line of Dante’s Inferno
aha! you caught it!
“your prayers, your intentions, your dog, & his bone.” says so much so beautifully and implicitly.