Announcing:
Now announcing the “Official” Coffee House Poetry Store: Coffee House Poetry @ CafePress. Because, you know, they’ll let anyone open one of these things.
So far, I’m offering a T-shirt, a mouse pad, and a teddy bear, but expect more, because it’s fun as hell to design these things.
Have a look:
The mouse pad features one of my poems, “Maxwell House” (read below).
And, y’know. The teddy bear was frickin’ cute.
I make a buck off each purchase. I figured, you know, why not. 
Alarm buzzing insistantly
Like an angry wasp in my sleeping ear
I roll and strike it grumpily
Slapping it silent again
Like an abusive parent with a small child.
I stare up at the ceiling
Groaning, dragging myself clear
Of the black hole of my bed.
Cigarettes, cigarettes … ah, there.
Plug one in my tight lips, light up,
Stagger blindly out to the kitchen.
Marlboro trailing smoke over my
Slumped shoulder
Hair sticking up in six directions
Shocked to be out of bed
Eyes half closed, reluctantly open
Just enough to find the coffee in the ‘fridge.
Fill a filter with warm brown grounds
Bitter pungent scent wafting up
To fill my nose and I shiver in
Anticipation.
My God, my Maxwell House,
I dump water in the machine
And wait, a cat perched over a mouse hole,
Cigarette twitching like a tail
Watching and inhaling that smell
In my dark kitchen
As that brown elixyr of life
Slowly, oh slowly, fills the pot.
Stub out my cigarette and fill a cup
Adding just the perfect amounts
Of sugar and milk
An arcane alchemist in a
Terrycloth robe mixing an
Explosion in liquid form.
Warm cup clenched in my hands
I sit at the table, hunched over,
Breathing deeply of fresh coffee.
Light another Marlboro, inhale, exhale,
Lift the cup,
Sip, savor,
Ahhhhhhh, Heaven . . .
October 12th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Very good! Is there any possibility of copyright infringements over using the Maxwell House name? Good luck with this. See you soon. Love ya lots….MOM
October 17th, 2006 at 1:24 am
Hey, Mom. I don’t think that would be a copyright issue. I’m not using their logo or anything. I dunno — I’d have to look it up.