Fun Espresso

Egad, the Casbah in Santa Barbara

Part of the fun is the embrace of perfume

Cafe Angelica Emerald Crème

A sabbatical delay waiting to be served

A ceremonial promenade hunched over gazettes

Unwelcome raindrops splatter the canvassed toes of my shoes

Thus the au courant cartoons on my stringy denim knees

Inside at last, I’m saved and Mocha Berry satisfied

Like the face of the fretless little girl

Blowing candy off the floor in her mouth

Clicking up and down in shoes too big for her feet

Stealing glances at an intellectual jerk

Chocolate Cherry satisfied between deep banter

With a friend floating in Vanilla Colada

Part of the fun is real references to books

And book references to real well read attitudes

What’s the shiniest patented leather flats

On the girl with the silkiest blonde hair

Doing with the darkest man

In Dreadlocks and Birkenstocks?

No talk between them

Then they’re sharing the table

Those lined outside will share tables too

The Raspberry Almond can sit with me

Keeping the beat with an aggravated drum lead

His body twitched with jazzy guitar licks

He smiled between the plugs in his ears

And faces fade into a mirror in the back

Part of the fun is waking up here

In an essay on spice and circumstance

A sabbatical renewal once more

On a regional affirmation of decadence

This day of rest I worship Santa Barbara

And the celestial trip I straddle

To be able to dry my canvassed toes

With the heat of Golden Pecan

And the fervent chill of observation

In my sanctioned Casbah

In my sabbatical home

I hold my head up

My cup runneth over

Reading books and people vicariously

Egad, I am dry and satisfied

© 2002, 2020 E Maria Shelton Speller. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.