Coffee Persona Poem

Wrapped Fingers

You touch me softly early in the morning

Smile when your lips touch me

—

I follow you through the apartment as you get ready

You tell me you need me

—

Carried through the street as you go to work, you act like you can’t function without me

Even in the middle of the day you call my name and I congregate with you and your friends around your desks

—

5:00 pm, we’re both running empty but you still crave me on the way home,

Unraveling me to finish even though I’m still warm

—

The street we take now is not the same from this morning, but you clutch me graciously all the same so I’m content

—

The door opens

You hug and suddenly he’s in front of me

First.

—

Your fingers wrap around him

You touch him softly

You smile when your lips touch his

He follows you around the apartment, musing about the day you’ve had

—

He says he needs you

You’re looking at him like you can’t function without him there

—

You call his name

You congregate

The cubicle replaced by the couch and I wonder if it felt this way too

—

8:30 pm

You crave him now that you’re home

—

Your unraveling him from his container like you did me mine

You walk a different path into a different room and I miss when we were on the sidewalk, just us

No longer content

—

The sounds you make early in the morning with me are the ones you’re making late into the night with him

I sit on the kitchen counter, growing cold with the realization that I’ve been replaced

You said you loved the way I tasted but now you’re saying the same thing to him

And you have no idea that I can hear you