Coffee

mornings have bulk and that saves them

from immediate death—

                                  but they lose weight,

become afternoons            arrested at silences

too listened for and too           listening

 

taking all to bed at last

anemia’d

                 call them evenings

 

seventy-five rpm down to thirty-three

 

that there isn’t

going to be anything else

seems for sure, is the night,

seems forever’d

 

The slow bleed of the day

Bibliographical info

Russell Atkins' “Coffee” from World'd Too Much. Copyright © 2019 by Russell Atkins. Used with permission of The Cleveland State University Poetry Center. All rights reserved.

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