Straw Shots

Poetry Thursday is still taking a well-deserved vacation, so we are left to our own devices. Once you have read my some what weak attempt at relating my recent culture shock, click on the link, rush to the comments and see who else spouted poetic words this week!

Culture shock


On the other side of the mountain
I ordered an Americano
crossed my fingers

would it be hot?
watered down?
resemble coffee?

(it was, after all, a motel
of no great repute)

"Straws?" she asked
and I thought she had gone daft

hot coffee and plastic straws,
what planet had I landed on?

"No, thank you."

My mind puzzled,
it defied logic,
(the straws and coffee,
not my brain)

Moments later, I knew
(I am quick!)

It must have started
when a salesman
in his white starched shirt and pleated
pants tipped his cardboard clad cup
(filled with
triple espresso or latte -- shaken, not stirred)
dripped on one shirt too many
then whined in his macho imitation

and she, the one dressed
in immaculate white pants, shoved
the straw from her iced coffee
that never dripped
through molded plastic deep into the bowels of his tiny
cup and said, "suck it up"....

And I, the irreverent one, was paid back
for this interpretation the next morning
as the smiling barista shoved
two tiny red straws
into the bowels of my tiny cup,

I did not recognize the danger
nor associate my vision of melting plastic
with HOT or fire in the hole of my precious mouth...

the coffee
found its mark through both tiny barrels,
it was no wonder I could not taste the
heated plastic.

MeeAugraphie
07/18/07

Now, I know a rational person would not dream of copying these words; so, if you are irrational, don't copy them anyway. Thanks!