My Happy Addiction

Coffee allures me.
Before I go to sleep
I think of the cup
I’ll have in the morning.
In the morning,
I think of the cup
I’ll have after my walk.
During my walk,
I think of the cup
I’ll have when I get home.

How I’ll grind the beans in my circa 1930s Kitchen Aid coffee mill with burr grinder, and
catch the grinds in my circa 1940s Gladding McBean pink Coronado Swirl teacup.
How I’ll bring the grinds up to my nose for a long whiff.

At home, I put on the kettle,
feed the dog,
grind beans,
smell the grinds,
pour them in a filter,
set the filter inside a glass funnel,
and set the funnel on a thick ceramic cup.

The moment of alchemy has come.

Green Arabica organic coffee beans picked in Columbia and
medium roasted at Coastal Peaks in San Luis Obispo
become my morning elixir.
As I pour the water in a circular flow,
the deep brown grinds turn into a slurry
the colors of an ancient Danish bog,
of fresh furrows in a Kentucky field,
of wet sand on the Pacific shore.

Steam is a sauna to my face; liquid falling into the cup, a fountain.
When it reaches to within an inch of the brim,
I remove the funnel, and
my full cup of hot dark comfort is ready, almost.
I add a few tablespoons of cream,
and take the first sip of sharp smoothness,
of refined earthiness.

I am happy.

Margaret Lange is a poet, writer, and singer/songwriter who is at the tail end of completing her first CD. She founded the Sky World Poetry Series, hosted “The Spoken Word” on Excellent Radio, and taught poetry in the schools with California Poets in the Schools. She lives in a rural town on the Central Coast of California where she can often be found in her kitchen fiddling with food.

grinder photo: Margaret Lange