Pay with a Poem – 21st March, 2015 [World Poetry Day]

I’d like my coffee for this verse, it being Pay with a Poem

day – allegedly – though I don’t think the major chains

chime along with the international notion of  an expresso

or cappuccino or Americano for a rhyme. I don’t need

fourteen shots, Italian or Shakespearean, and I don’t need

ten soft/hard beats in the froth as I just want my drink

with cold milk. A good cup of coffee like a good poem

can be an easy thing to make and you simply have to

listen for what is asked - and good ingredients in an honest

machine. Don’t rely on the chrome and steam and how to

paint a chocolate flower in the lather: count the seconds

silently in your head, or measure with your eye like sizing

a lunging ring. Make it strong but not a test of my resistance

to pain, and on this day of ground poetic beans, make it free.