Suzanne Lummis

Two Cups
“I don’t like coffee—
it makes me think of death.”
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

i.
Yes
but only if you gaze down
as into the round black
mouth of a
well where a tossed
coin
never stops
turning
heads
tails
heads and the clasped
dark leans
against the gypsy
lines of your palms
and the result of
the toss your fortune your
life that Wish-in-
Nose-Dive is far
gone still
falling

ii.
Yes but only if you gaze
down through your own
hands cupped like a
beggar’s with a circle
of dark at the center like
the pipeline or porthole
keyhole
to a shadow world
because you’ve stayed up
all night on nothing
but blues and black
coffee and the sound
of windy traffic
outside your door
which reminds you
of death or is that
the coffee?

To be safe pour your
self another bottomless cup
as they used to say in
the diners and don’t
sleep.