Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Morning Coffee

by Edmund Siejka


The night before
A soft rain had fallen
Traffic lights,
Hitting the streets
At just the right angle,
Transformed wet asphalt
Into long shiny ribbons.

Pulling into the Diner
He saw that most of the tables were taken
But there was one left
All the way in the back.

She was there
Calling all the morning customers by name
The men answering good naturedly
Their voices still heavy with sleep.

He watched as she walked
Down the narrow aisle
Every so often resting on a familiar shoulder
As she leaned over to pour another cup of coffee.


Closing his eyes
He wished she was with him
Kissing him
Her arms around his waist.
He, holding her so close to him.

When he looked up
He was alone.

Eventually she came to him
Walking all the way to the back of the diner
A mischievous smile on her face
Her impatient eyes asking
“Are you ready to order now?”

love the visuals: ...long shiny ribbons... walking down the narrow aisle... very well-defined

and that longing... replace the waitress with librarian and that could well be me...

a very lovely snapshot

Well painted. I think I might have been there but I'm not really a morning person usually. Maybe it was a different shift..

a pleasure to read, thank you,
for some reason I visualized it as nightscape, I think now it was daylight



I had a friend in California who was a songwriter and a waitress, she refereed to her waitress gig as being a social whore.

never forget this bit from a song she wrote

"they say I was a rebel till I reached the age of five
it was then that I got caught up in the struggle to survive
it came to me one rainy august morning like a flash
we might all wake up tomorrow in a pile of smoke and ash"