Coffee, he suggested

Coffee, he suggested

and so they met on thirsty soil

at a cafe (a quiet retreat for flirtation).

Across the table he sipped

the inky draught and she perceived

his delight

while outside on the street there

was already a faint chill.

She reached for her coffee,

a golden bangle slipping over

her wrist and a riptide of thought

possessed her mind

while she floated on the surface

of their conversation.

Her eyes wandered comfortably over the familiar

landscape of his face.

The conversation broke-

but she, with the flavour of Coffea arabica

on her lips had no great desire

to make him talk.

Silence, she accepted, was a part

of the general hush and symmetry of things (of them).

The charm of the coffee was drinking it together.

But soon, the early sunset slanted

through windows and across their table

and his hurried dip into her day

was done.

And so he leaves.

(coffee cup empty, quick kiss to the cheek).

She hardly knows what she had been seeking

or why the failure to find it

so blotted the light from her sky.

words and image by Lisa Murphy-Lamb