My Cuppa Coffee
by Anne Barney
I had my cuppa coffee in the bigs.
It tasted of air travel,
instead of Greyhound,
and hotel rooms
where the bathmats
weren’t made of paper.
It tasted of a meal
I hadn’t bought at a bus station,
and a uniform with a number
I’d never worn before,
one I’ll play
in the next Powerball drawing.
It tasted of a moment
when the crowd was louder
and the light was brighter,
but not bright enough
to turn hard cheese
to a beach ball.
It tasted of a moment
back in high school
when I finally got that girl
in the back seat,
but she said no,
and started to cry.
My cuppa coffee in the bigs
was hot and sweet to the taste,
but it burned my throat
goin’ down,
and it’s kept me awake
ever since.
Anne Barney is a poet, grant writer, and pastel artist in Rehoboth Beach, Delaward. She is author of four books of poetry: After the Barn Door Opened (Pudding House Publications, 2007), Nosegay (Pudding House Publications, 2002), Pinned to the Corkboard (Pudding House Publications, 2000) and Stolen Joy: Healing After Infertility and Infant Loss (Icarus Books, 1993). Her work has appeared in regional and national publications, including the Maryland Poetry Review, Antietam Review, Pudding Magazine, Chiron Review, and Little Patuxent Review. She thanks Jack and Jill magazine for first recognizing her poetry with an honorable mention when she was nine years old.