Tawdry Elegance

After swimming, I sometimes go to Starbucks 

on the Circle to wait between buses. 

During the holidays, the florist's windows

in the Chase Tower are filled with glitzy ornaments,

gauzy bright ribbons, and various stems

encrusted with glitter.

These windows provide a cheerful spot

along the cold, gray sidewalks.

I love them.

Drizzly Night

This may easily be one of the more F'd up pictures

 I've ever taken, but I don't care. I like it.

What started out to be an image of four cyclists, 

possibly delivery men for a couple 

of the nearby restaurants, became a layered 

image showing the intersection 

of three separate stories, not one.

From the inside, there's me reflected in

the Starbucks' window, the tan and green plaid

of my jacket showing faintly at the corner.

Then there's the shopper passing through

the scene, a shallow blur of anonymity, 

while the four men chat among themselves 

near the bicycle stand.

Rainy Day/Sipping Chai

I sit, sipping chai,

gazing out the window

at the gray, drizzly morning.

I think of you last evening 

as you strode across the room.

I caught a glimpse of your bare back

above the waistband of your jeans,

And longed to touch your smooth skin,

To feel its taut silk beneath my fingertips

where it curves along your spine.

So close. So far away, you may as well 

be walking on the moon.

But the warm smell of you,

Even in my imagination, 

brings comfort to the cold rain

of my days.

In All Its Glorious Hibiscus-ness

On my way to Starbucks Wednesday morning, 

I was startled by the sunlit beauty of this red hibiscus 

outside the Sheraton Hotel entrance.

Newly bloomed, it stood tall and proud to greet

the morning as it rose from behind the

downtown buildings. Just beyond, a hotel limo

and a line of African cabbies were also

prepared to begin the day's business.

Looking for Color

The all day rain and temperatures in the forty's were

 a relief from the miserable cold of the past

few weeks, but the colors were wet and gray.

I went into the archives, such as they are, and found

this image from just a few weeks ago.

I was sitting in Starbucks when I happened to

notice the buildings reflected in a cab

parked just outside the window.

The carefully designed seams where the body

parts joined each other balanced beautifully

with the robin's egg blue and red.

Sweet.

Twining

These delicate stalks spent their summer climbing 

toward the sun, bending to Nature's whim,

their stems forging delicate descriptions of their twining,

showing the record of their journey in the winter light.

Delicate. Slender. Strong.

I suppose this may be the diary of the Coke Field's plants,

the barren stems, stalks and trees the sepia-toned

record of  the now-dormant field, waiting for a new chapter

to be written in the coming spring.

The cold air had me heading down to my corner

Starbucks for an eggnog latte, a treat in this

Christmas season. Ummm, happiness.