Coffee & Caffeine

In the kitchen,
a tension
that blinds a man, grinding
coffee beans;
his pestle to her mortar.

Poised
and thinking,
he sits watching,
beads of fear
pronounced on his upper lip

for the abrupt sight
of her
head-in-profile
thrown back in a laugh!

Such anxiety kills
over the
anticipated gesture
knowing at that moment,
certain he will lose her.

Meantime,
the crushing weight
of silence
is anything but silent.

Of coffee beans
being pulverized,
she agonizes over the grist
and he the caffeine.

A sweat bead bursts,
drawing his eyes together,
pulling angst
from his pores
while he plots.

At the sink, her thin white slip
contradicts her purity.
He furrows.
What does she think this is,
a goddamn wedding?

He stands his chair back
on two legs
feeling his brain burn as it screams
No!
It's a fucking beheading!

This is bestiality,
so close to the sun,
where a grain of sand
weighs a ton times a ton

...and the coffee
percolates.