'Café Comforts'

It’s out! My poem “Café Comforts” is part of Issue 15 (Autumn 2012) of Diverse Voices Quarterly, an American literary e-zine. The entire issue (which includes my somewhat self-indulgent author’s bio–sorry, am not yet used to capsule-writing about myself) can be downloaded for free through the link below.

www.diversevoicesquarterly.com/Vol4Issue15.pdf

*    *    *    *    *

The swirling of steam as it spirals to the ceiling

like a ballerina twirling in numberless pirouettes

gives life to the cup growing cold

in your bare rugged hands.

You whisper in the simmer,

through alternating sips and silence,

the stories pervading the cursory pathways

crafted on your skin.

In this meager setup,

you regale, I remember; you imply, I imagine;

and our cities of sorrow, callow shores, sunsets,

country sides, stars, communal settings –

rise with the smoke to the overhead chandelier.

Over the prancing and brazen glancing

of customers and cats on the sidewalk,

you become the idea and I,

your mural of childhood caricatures –

bursting with color beneath layers of dust.

But once more, the door opens to welcome

the newest buyer, and your eyes betray

a hunger for hours of solitude, for song

and symphonies and speech,

and so you slither back to your cheap comforts

and coffee.

*    *    *    *    *

Sembreak is finally here! I can feel it in the water, I can feel it in the air (channeling Galadriel here). Also, the other day, I finally received word from the editors of Philippine Speculative Fiction 8. End of story. But hey, that’s an email from the Alfars (which can mean nothing to someone else). As they say, you win some, you lose some–but you never stop writing.