Red River Review
Established 1999
A Little Coffee by Jack Weitzman
There’s more plastic trash in the ocean now
Than sea anemones and starfish, and the otters are belly up
with intestines jammed with plastic bags.
At Starbucks I snap on the plastic lid
and head to the office with my morning coffee.
I don’t blame anyone. It all started out so well:
Plastic conveniences for all! But then something
Insidious happens—something about
Self-interest and entropy—and
like marriages that start out
so full of bright green hope,
spoil like an avocado that’s
been in the air too long.
When I put that plastic lid on my cup,
I know that I am biting a poison apple,
Bringing my own extinction closer,
Going the way of the death instinct and
Freud who snorted enough coke
to dissolve his own septum.
A car speeds by as I enter the crosswalk and
Comes within an inch of my life,
But I only feel the thrill of a close call
And find joy that my coffee is secure…..
Bravo for plastic lids! I live to see another day
that starts with coffee and a cigarette
and a little death to get me going………
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