June 22nd, 2014

A Foreigner

A woman asked
me one day,
Which is the most
local

She was talking about coffee
I looked at her
and said
It's coffee

It comes from
far away. In burlap
bags on ships
in crates

It is picked
by people who
speak different
languages, dialects

in three different places
in the world
wholly different from
where I live

There is no way
for coffee to be
local
it is by nature foreign

We buy a cup
of coffee from
a small local shop
and feel good

but only the people
at the shop
are the locals
the coffee has seen the world

More of the world
than myself
More of the world
than I will probably ever see.

So my coffee
that I drink this morning
is well traveled and
truly a foreigner.