The Gap stands where
you took me for
cream cheese on date nut bread
my favorite sandwich, warm in
then palace of heavenly coffee
Where democratic counters gleamed
and seats spiraled to lift
my smaller self upward
Where, yes, in my lifetime
we were always seated and served,
a black girl child and her mother
hangin’ out in the empire city
Only you inhabit this memory
We, together in the shopping endeavor,
nourishing and sheltering after that special work
for you, a pleasure I never fully understood
Where you offer choices
and soft conversation
I want what you drink:
hot black cuppa java
scant spoonful of sugar and cream, cream
poured from ribbed glass and steel containers,
stirred by your stainless,
held just so
I eat the slender sandwich half, slowly,
mouth closed, chewing,
breathing this in
We are out together
Where you pay for me
and smile
Better coffee a millionaire’s
money can’t buy.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem