“Coffee Dreams”

c. 2020 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(12-20)

Coffee dreams

A story perks inside of me

Awake, by some mistake

Twisting the comforter

I toss and stir

Throughout the night

Drink glass by my side

I was yawning and nodding out

Roku on the screen

Showing ‘Shout Factory’

A rerun to ease my mind

Of Space:1999

But when I moved to my bed

The vibe was disturbed

Like the executioner’s final word

And a black cat’s purr

Damned brain stem

“I’ve left that thing on again!”

Coffee dreams

Of waking early

Driving a Ford Torino

Staying at a motel with a breakfast buffet

Somewhere off the highway

At the counter

Spilling hot black over the rim of my cup

Sized too small

Making a mess of it all

Splashing tide

I wanted a muffin on the side

Caffeine for my bloodstream

But instead it’s on the newspaper

Headline: Crisis Averted

The Supreme Court diverted

A legal argument for scholarly minds

I can’t get my pour in line

Still missing my mug

Coffee stains on the Super 8 rug

Raindrops on the window glass

I want this moment to pass

Perfectly poised in the dark

Like a poem by John Cooper Clarke

Wail, wail

Over my epic Java fail

I flip the pillow and realize

That the night remains

This was all the trick of a dreamscape

Fed to my head

Like the last drop of liquor before 

I walked across the bedroom floor

To retire with the intention

Of a slumbering son

Tick tock

Hands on the clock

Midnight and more

In my chair, I’d started to snore

Yet with my restless episode

And a curse stuck in my throat

A vision of polyester curtains

Mockingly covering the windows 

Me sleeping in my clothes

At a motel down the road

I wake

A half-step from rest never had

My feet find the carpet

Upright, I sit

Dog in the doorway

Here begins our new day

BUNN on the countertop

Rubbing my eyes

Still drifting between here and the other side

Remembering the rain

A trip taken to get away

Did I see something unapproved?

A timeline stuck between the grooves?

It felt too real

This tale of self

In the Pennsylvania Commonwealth

Like the charm of a rascal wreck

Played out for full effect 

A detour I never took

An extra page in the book

Written by fate

What if I had gone away

In June of 1978

On a business trip

Impetuous, teenaged kid

Broke out of my room on Marlboro Drive

Too full of myself

Staying at the motel

Slipping, sliding

Torino driving

8-track stereo

Turned up with BTO

Rainwater over the road

Out of gas

Opportunity passed

Stuck in Williamsport

With my fastback Ford

It’s hard to imagine today

But I used to think that way

Until my night flight went astray

I fell out of bed

My head hit the nightstand

Prone, on my knees and hands

My story took a dive

In never-never land

Gone with the breeze

Now the brewing coffee

Is calling me

Like the hoot of an owl, out in the barn

Like the Torino V-8

With a four-barrel carb

Behold the sunrise

My dream too quickly turned aside

But now I have a cause to wake

Hope to fill the empty page

Written on my iPhone SE