DESPERATELY SEEKING LATTE

Stranded for a few hours in the city,
I hunted down a latte and a choco glazed & raised.
None to be had at the Starbucks on Masonic.
Even though cops, muni drivers, and the dispossessed
trolled the only coffee bar around.
The shuttered Lucky Penny hadn’t changed in decades.
I looked at the mermaid askance, sighed,
& settled for an overpriced chocolate croissant.
The barista barked, you want that thing heated?
When I bit in, I thought I had joined the fishes.
Where had such a simple pleasure
been hiding all my life? Under a rock?
I adjusted my attitude and sank
back into the restless flotsam of the streets.
Waited for my friend to resurface after surgery.

4/4/19

And then afterward, while my patient was having a recovery coffee at Peet’s in San Rafael, someone stole my iPad. So this poem was lost for a year only to resurface a year later on Facebook.