coffee job

not pleased with this yet

when i was fifteen,
we found a home
in a coffee shop down the road.
i'd drink hot chocolate with cream,
resting my head on the shoulder
of the boy of the week.
come home smelling of coffee beans.

when i was sixteen,
i started drinking coffee
instead of eating food.
my arms got thinner
my eyes got wider
my hair got darker.

when i was seventeen,
i got a coffee job.
and a spasm in my stomach.
my hands shook with nerves.
sometimes i even stopped breathing altogether.
i didn't drink coffee anymore,
but the obsession deepened.
watching the golden espresso drip.
the coffee got under my nails
and into my skin.

when i was eighteen,
my daddy moved back in with us.
and we had coffee every morning.
i stopped taking my stomach medicine.
i started sipping coffee again.

Reviews

[celyn]

You stole my dad! :(

[messydaisy]

I love the comparison of a life event to something so much more minute. It's like when a scent induces a certain memory. Something small means so much more. Excellent.

[Buddhistboy73]

enjoyed your writing. :) love the coffee comparison...and the last stanza is fantastic....

[Jeff Loquist]

I love the way that your poetry takes a subject, turns it on its head and allows you to insert "unnamed life experience" as a replacement for...coffee, I guess, in this case

[Ed Hart]

You have a way of telling your story that reaches for the universal. Oh hell, that what poetry is supposed to do...