Promptly Poetry Entries (6/20 - 6/21)

A Cup of Coffee and Kindness

It was a morning of indecision.
The sky could not promise
to hold back tears, no more than
could I as even the clouds
were weighed down by worry
and hung low over my head.
It was a morning of indecision
for the sputtering engine of
the patchwork truck ahead,
inching its way in shudders
and shakes, its rusty frame
creeping up to the drive-thru
window, spitting smoke at its driver
then settling down into a quiet stillness
until the line moved again.
And I, under the dark shadows
of a future in doubt
cursed the time wasted
waiting for coffee.
At last, when the truck
had cleared the window
and its trail of exhaust
merely a wisp of smoke
dispersing in the mist,
I waved a bill at the coffee man.
Finally grasping that cup of brew,
praying for clarity of thought
in a dose of pure, unsullied
Arabica, black and bitter.
“No ma’am” said he
“the coffee is free.”
Paid for me by the driver
of that rattling bucket
of rusty bolts, who now
had moved that truck
down the road a mile or more
and sent me coffee and a message:
“smile more”.



38 Lines

Prompt: A day someone surprised you with kindness.
For Promptly Poetry 8/31 Week 14