Dispatches from a Breakfast Joint #60

We came all this way

sleep wiped

clothes unwrinkled

wallet, check, keys, check

car purring

seats heated

To sit in the occupied silence of

third spaces

the great good places

clinking coffee cups

pleases and thank yous

no, no more

was everything alright?

yes, can you believe what she said?

indistinct murmur of bodies nourishing

falling

in &

out

of gossip

that binds us

We came all this way

to be seated

smiling

across a chasm of

raspberry, strawberry, marmalade

coffee vapor dissipating

untouched water glasses

cream stacked like circus trapeze artists

tipping towards catastrophe

to look down

and scroll through

other people's lives