January 22: Routine, Kwame Dawes, "Coffee Break"

Life is really short.  I am the father of a high school junior.  In a little over a year, I will be the father of a high school graduate.  That astounds me.  I still think of my daughter as the little girl whose hair I would braid every night.

I am sitting in my living room.  It's almost 11 o'clock at night.  There's a winter storm raging outside my front door.  It's supposed to continue all night long.  School has already been called off for my kids.  Pretty soon, I'm going to brush my teeth and go to bed.

That is my life.  A series of routines.  I like the comfort of routine.  It make me feel safe.  However, as Kwame Dawes poem demonstrates in its short lines and simple narrative, life has a way of disrupting things, pulling the blanket off of you.

Saint Marty prays for uninterrupted routine for everyone he loves tomorrow.

Coffee Break

by:  Kwame Dawes

It was Christmastime,

the balloons needed blowing,

and so in the evening

we sat together to blow

balloons and tell jokes,

and the cool air off the hills

made me think of coffee,

so I said, “Coffee would be nice,”

and he said, “Yes, coffee

would be nice,” and smiled

as his thin fingers pulled

the balloons from the plastic bags;

so I went for coffee,

and it takes a few minutes

to make the coffee

and I did not know

if he wanted cow’s milk

or condensed milk,

and when I came out

to ask him, he was gone,

just like that, in the time

it took me to think,

cow’s milk or condensed;

the balloons sat lightly

on his still lap.