NOON
Sketch: Coffee
A cup of coffee: cream, no sugar. That's the way he always says it. I can even hear the punctuation in his voice, which is different from the way I talk, because I often don't pause longe nough to even have commas, let alone colons. Sometimes. Sometimes I practice slowing down for more than breathing, really pausing between words and letting them hang in the air a little bit as though they were coming out of my mouth in a cartoon bubble and whoever I was talking to had to read them before they could reply.
The problem with talking too much, like I do, I know I do, but I can't help it... the words, they're in my brain too many at a time and I'm afraid that if I don't get them all out at once I'll get a headache and I don't like it when things hurt, but the problem, like I started saying, is that nobody listens. How could anybody listen to all the things I say when there are too many? Just one word after another piling up outside of myself like a pile of unsorted laundry that might be either clean or dirty, but who has time to pick through it all? I don't even have time, I just talk, talk, talk, and maybe someone will be listening when I say something important. If I do. I don't know if I ever say anything important.
I think important thoughts have to grow, to sit and brood, fester a little bit maybe, before they can become important. Like cheese. At least, I think this is the way cheese works. I don't know. I don't think I want to know, if festering is what cheese does, because I like cheese a lotand "fester" is a gross word.
And anyway, he comes in everyday and orders a cup of coffee: (wait for it) cream, no sugar. It's beautiful, the way he orders it and I don't think he even notices. He's probably so used to saying things with so much important punctuation in them all the time that he can't be bothered thinking about the way he speaks his order for morning coffee. But maybe he does. Maybe he knows how smart he sounds. I want to ask him but I don't think he could be bothered with me, because after all, I just pour the coffee and then go about the rest of the things I have to do, chattering with other people, but never with him, because I don't think he'd listen.
But I don't mind. I like him anyway, even if he's too busy drinking his coffee (with cream, no sugar) to care about any of the dumb stuff I have to say. I like him better than anybody else who comes in here, actually, and maybe that's why. Because he doesn't notice me or try to grab my ass or order eggs and then pour ketchup all over them or anything like that. He just reads his paper and drinks his coffee and pays and leaves every day only to come back when tomorrow becomes today and that's all, really.
A cup of coffee: cream, no sugar. I think I'd drink it that way too, if I liked coffee, which I don't.
A cup of coffee: cream, no sugar. That's the way he always says it. I can even hear the punctuation in his voice, which is different from the way I talk, because I often don't pause longe nough to even have commas, let alone colons. Sometimes. Sometimes I practice slowing down for more than breathing, really pausing between words and letting them hang in the air a little bit as though they were coming out of my mouth in a cartoon bubble and whoever I was talking to had to read them before they could reply.
The problem with talking too much, like I do, I know I do, but I can't help it... the words, they're in my brain too many at a time and I'm afraid that if I don't get them all out at once I'll get a headache and I don't like it when things hurt, but the problem, like I started saying, is that nobody listens. How could anybody listen to all the things I say when there are too many? Just one word after another piling up outside of myself like a pile of unsorted laundry that might be either clean or dirty, but who has time to pick through it all? I don't even have time, I just talk, talk, talk, and maybe someone will be listening when I say something important. If I do. I don't know if I ever say anything important.
I think important thoughts have to grow, to sit and brood, fester a little bit maybe, before they can become important. Like cheese. At least, I think this is the way cheese works. I don't know. I don't think I want to know, if festering is what cheese does, because I like cheese a lotand "fester" is a gross word.
And anyway, he comes in everyday and orders a cup of coffee: (wait for it) cream, no sugar. It's beautiful, the way he orders it and I don't think he even notices. He's probably so used to saying things with so much important punctuation in them all the time that he can't be bothered thinking about the way he speaks his order for morning coffee. But maybe he does. Maybe he knows how smart he sounds. I want to ask him but I don't think he could be bothered with me, because after all, I just pour the coffee and then go about the rest of the things I have to do, chattering with other people, but never with him, because I don't think he'd listen.
But I don't mind. I like him anyway, even if he's too busy drinking his coffee (with cream, no sugar) to care about any of the dumb stuff I have to say. I like him better than anybody else who comes in here, actually, and maybe that's why. Because he doesn't notice me or try to grab my ass or order eggs and then pour ketchup all over them or anything like that. He just reads his paper and drinks his coffee and pays and leaves every day only to come back when tomorrow becomes today and that's all, really.
A cup of coffee: cream, no sugar. I think I'd drink it that way too, if I liked coffee, which I don't.
