Plato's Cafe Poem by Michael Shepherd

Scrolling Wikipedia
for entries on ‘Perception’
this entry – scrappy and unclear –
produced a new conception:

referring to the standard quotes
tradition offers, to be safe,
before the bolder modern thoughts,
it mentioned ‘Plato’s Cafe’…

imagination leapt for joy:
dazzling hubbub of philo-sophy,
sunglassed and gesticulating;
strong wine, expressive coffee…

or should it be pronounced today
as genteel afternoon café?
or, workmanlike, the niff and naff
of greasy spoon and bikers’ caff?

but thanks, O Wikied editors,
for this so joyous Grecian twist:
long may this Left-Bank image stay
of how philosophers should exist,
and spend their dialectic day:
coffee and exquisite gateau;
Gauloises at Le Cave de Plato..