Espresso Dreams by Lauren Kahle

The white chocolate jar full of whole milk

And sugary Ghirardelli sweetness

Is opened so fast; dizzyingly shoots

Chocolaty particles in the air

Swirling like a masterpiece mosaic

The barista steals two sugary scoops

And pours them into a sixteen ounce cup

Submerged, drowned by the finest espresso

The long, slender spoon swirls around the cup

Like a ballerina twirling around

A stage, and the audience is in awe

Of the graceful, delicate, yet rapid

Spinning motion, turn after turn after

Turn again, so intricate and somehow

She doesn’t get dizzy; with a curtsy

It’s over; in this dance the audience

Is tired and in need of a swift buzz

Now the white has become one with the dark

Meanwhile the spurring noise comes to an end

The milk is steamed and ready to be poured

Diffusion makes the mixture now complete

A lid gently placed on this sweet artwork

Given away, through the open window

A sip taken from this delicate treat

Leaves a slight smile on the consumer’s face

A clink in the jar is a token of

Approval, satisfied, she drives away

Ah be with me always, spirit of the

Coffee shop I call mine four days a week

The garden of flavors, eternally

Laid back afternoons and smiling faces!

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Poem of the Day: Chez Jane

BY FRANK O'HARA

The white chocolate jar full of petals

swills odds and ends around in a dizzying eye   

of four o’clocks now and to come. The tiger,   

marvellously striped and irritable, leaps   

on the table and without disturbing a hair   

of the flowers’ breathless attention, pisses   

into the pot, right down its delicate spout.

A whisper of steam goes up from that porcelain   

urethra. “Saint-Saëns!” it seems to be whispering,   

curling unerringly around the furry nuts   

of the terrible puss, who is mentally flexing.   

Ah be with me always, spirit of noisy   

contemplation in the studio, the Garden   

of Zoos, the eternally fixed afternoons!   

There, while music scratches its scrofulous   

stomach, the brute beast emerges and stands,   

clear and careful, knowing always the exact peril   

at this moment caressing his fangs with   

a tongue given wholly to luxurious usages;   

which only a moment before dropped aspirin   

in this sunset of roses, and now throws a chair   

in the air to aggravate the truly menacing.