IN A COFFEE POT
Tonight, like every night, you see me here
Drinking my coffee slowly, absorhed, alone.
A quiet creature at a table in the rear
Familiar at this evening hour and quite unknown.
The coffee steams. The Greek who runs the joint
Leans on the counter, sucks a dead cigar.
His eyes are meditative, sad, lost in what it is
Greeks think about the kind o'f Greeks they are.
I brood upon myself. I rot
Night after night in this cheap coffee pot.
I am twenty-two I shave each day
I was educated at a public school
They taught me what to read and what to say
The nobility of man my country's pride
How Nathan Hale died
And Grant took Richmond.
Was it on a summer or a winter's day?
vVas it Sherman burned the Southland to the sea?
The men the names the dates have worn away
The classes words the books commencement prize
Here bitter with myself I sit
Holding the ashes of their prompted lies.
The bright boys, where are they now?
Fernando, handsome wop who led us all
The orator in the assembly hall
Aristrt man the school's big brain.
He's bus boy in an eat-quick joint
At seven per week twelve hours a day.
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