Where gossip sits on the froth speckled lips
Of conspiratorial customers
Dripping like over applied gloss
Where ladies that latte might risk a frappe
For a dare

Where lovers meet, unaware
And shoppers exchange compliments on
What they have bought to wear

Where, for a fleeting while, time stands still

Where waitresses are pretty, and the waiters just as lush
And the blaring traffic outside is reduced to a hush
And snatched conversations lazily come and go
Did he really say “I’m not inflammable, you know,”
Across a gently cooling , Americano

And the Baristas entice and flirt to procure
An exotic drink or a house made liqueur
Chocolate and cake lie in wait to breach dietary trust
As you stop stare in anguish crying , “I shouldn’t but I must.”

At the next table, to me
She left suddenly,
Her handbag tightly clutched
Drink barely touched
Head filled with doubt
As she rushed on her way out
I wondered what for
As she slipped out of the door
I should have said hello
I just wanted you to know
A mysterious end
To her stay at Cafe Blend