_41. Drinking Coffee in Unknown Chinese Locale

I can drink coffee in any city,
be another face in a shop
and get myself worked up for nothing.
What’s exciting?
Not the music or locale,
or strange artwork on the
walls (my favorite Lucky’s Cakes,
motto: “Beautiful and Romantic,
soft to the touch” no indication of
what this might be describing,
certainly not the coffee).
I can drink coffee in any city
but not pass unnoticed, always, no
order effectively and without difficulty
only often in some tortured gesticulation
and ending up with
a strange, sweet concoction.
But it doesn’t matter, the body’s
reliable thrill comes back and this
is wonderful, just wonderful, a
testament to universal communication and
exchange and my magnificent nerves.