Cafe A La Nuit Poem by Alyssa Yuan

Underground hastily interrupted the clamor of the mob, who,

Stripped of calm and courtesy, thrust into the carriage to flee;

Those men of versatility, some placate, or seduce, or appease,

Sojourned by the lightening cafe, also my dimmed old book

Which navigated my meditation in literature's waters deadly,

Where beguiling lights of vanity, and tempting air alcoholic

Were not sensed by me, numbly pondering on a raft in mist;

Serenity, entombed in noise, the only company when I read.


What are thou, humanity? Full of benevolence, yet malignity;

No intelligence would generously tell me, how to wisely live

As an orator of high-sounding, a schemer of unperceived duality.

Words couldn't cast your slightest form in my understanding;

The petrified time, my solid mind, like a henge unchanging,

In humanity's tidal cunningness and variety seemed to unfit.