{"id":71848,"date":"2020-06-27T21:41:27","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T01:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=71848"},"modified":"2020-06-27T21:41:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T01:41:27","slug":"caffeinated-gratitude-hour-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/caffeinated-gratitude-hour-13\/","title":{"rendered":"CAFFEINATED GRATITUDE – Hour 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAFFEINATED GRATITUDE<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gotta make some coffee. It\u2019s my first thought as the sublime sunrise<\/span><\/p>\n

creeps up over the water\u2019s edge to smack me in the face again.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have the bedroom curtains, the rods too.<\/span><\/p>\n

But fuck me if we\u2019ve hung \u2018em yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

I tell myself that\u2019s what the coffee\u2019s for.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Up-n-shuffle. Bathroom first. Spend an extra minute washing my hands<\/span><\/p>\n

Aren\u2019t we all paranoid these days? I tell myself again, that\u2019s<\/span><\/p>\n

what the coffee\u2019s for. Focus. On the good stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Empty yesterday\u2019s grounds. Wash the pot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fill the machine with water.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfold a filter, spoon out the grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t hit \u201cBrew.\u201d Not yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I hold my hands out over the coffeepot, the filter, the coffee<\/span><\/p>\n

I say a prayer of gratitude. Thoughts and prayers, I know, but I do<\/span><\/p>\n

for the bean farmers, that they may know what a gift they cultivate<\/span><\/p>\n

for the roasters, for the factory food packers<\/span><\/p>\n

the grocery truck driver, the stock clerk<\/span><\/p>\n

the checkout girl<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Each one of them played a vital role<\/span><\/p>\n

It reads like a walk-on in the script, maybe<\/span><\/p>\n

But individual hands<\/span><\/p>\n

Specific hands<\/span><\/p>\n

Human hands<\/span><\/p>\n

Brought me and my coffee together today<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then I press the button.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh. I, uh, plug the machine in.<\/span><\/p>\n

The switch has already been flipped<\/span><\/p>\n

the water rumbles cheerfully.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t I check it?<\/span><\/p>\n

I did the same thing yesterday.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All over the world, in every moment<\/span><\/p>\n

Strangers unite me with my day, every day<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I hold them in my heart, sipping solace from my thermos<\/span><\/p>\n

as I read Kerouac\u2019s poetry on the southbound train.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been hours now, and my coffee\u2019s still hot.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAFFEINATED GRATITUDE   Gotta make some coffee. It\u2019s my first thought as the sublime sunrise creeps up over the water\u2019s edge to smack me in the face again. We have the bedroom curtains, the rods too. But fuck me if we\u2019ve hung \u2018em yet. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1491,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71855,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71848\/revisions\/71855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}