Morning Coffee Harmony

The espresso machine at the Café
Comes from a family of basement boilers
Torturing water to a soprano scream
We speak incompletely, punctuated
With pressure-cooker protests

Only Gentle Tom, in the corner
Ringed by an electronic fence
Rides the wave of the espresso boiler
Like a neighborhood Pavarotti
Sailing solo above the cappuccino
Like a tenor in Milan

Joel roams the late summer room
Fly swatting a squadron of open-door
Attackers, making Dennis wince
At his food-inspection fiasco
While we politely and gently
Hit ourselves on our balding heads
Like Norwegians finding truth

Mari hasn't seen such happy flies

Since she rode a pony to country school

After milking time was done

Wondering if our barnyard humor

Is the common element

John, who cannot forget a friend

Or Henry's English wives by name

Frowns at how the whistling blast

Turns trivia to temporary rubble

Building quickly back again

To an orderly acrostic memory

Recalling the brand name

Of the fly sprayer on the family farm

Jeff says Apple has an app for flies

And flips his finger up and down
As if to itch something electronic
To make his I-Phone buzz like a wasp

Joel shows us how high he used to
Lift his arm before he can't do it now
While Dale inter-espresso-mittently
harmonizes with the general hum
Explaining that he has to weed his drive
Before his neighbor turns him in

Over in the corner, Tom stands
Orchestral, presiding the internal chaos
Which from across the street
Is a symphony of morning coffee harmony

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