Full house at Coffeeshop Writers' Group - New member Denise fits right in - Poem: Cheering Me On

Since Linda won first prize for her sci-fi short story at Montgomery County Community College Writers Contest, I said, "Linda! Buy whatever you want and I pay for it."

She presented me w/a $105 grocery bill.

Actually, she had a large coffee and a bag of almonds, which she told me she wished were salted. One of our national addictions - salt and sugar.

Linda read a wonderful poem "Coffee" in its various manifestations. It's printed at the end of this post.

Denise, a deeply religious Christian - who I knew would get along well with Martha, and also Kym - read a moving entry from her journal.

Like many of us, she has a problem with rejection. Her husband travels for business, and recently flew to a church in San Diego, where he spoke to the pastor who understood her challenges.

Speaking about challenges

Martha, in royal purple, wrote a lovely poem about her little childcare students, who suffer from autism. "Special People" had lovely lines in it.

She also wrote about the man (and his deceased brother) responsible for the Boston Bombing, starting with his parents giving him lots of love and wondering where it all went wrong.

Arlene, in the middle, and her husband Bill recently returned from New Orleans. They go every year to hear a music festival.

Arlene has a problem acknowledging how good her stories are, such as this week's "Traffic Jam." It has a terrific surprise ending about driving a Lexus automobile, whose commercials are everywhere, and are actually, in my opinion, works of art.

I told Arlene to submit it ASAP to Haggard and Halloo.

H and H traffics in strange little stories like hers!

Donna, widowed since last May, read a lovely piece on Penelope the cat, wrin from the cat's point of view. Totally fictitious, Penelope's mistress is Marissa. The cat, "sweet as a dumpling," made her debut with Marissa's friends and then excused herself to nap: "My sunbeams await."

Carly, the red-head on the right, read a story about her son Eric, which she titled "My Son, The Rock Star."

Honest writing! She and Eric both were born with a cleft palate and were operated on when they were five years old.

There are different types of cleft palate. Theirs are not visible on the outside, she said, like Stacy Keach's, but are on the roof of their mouths. The palate is one of the last things to develop in the womb. Each of them has an opening in the roof of their mouth and on up into the nose, before ending all the way up in Heaven!

"My Father's Desk" was a short piece by Beatriz. Here's the desk from a photo on Facebook. In only one page, Beatriz painted a picture of her father in Argentina, who quit his scientific job under the fascist Peron, and set up his laboratory at his own home.

Little 11-yo Beatriz was his lab assistant. She watched her dad extract beating hearts from frogs, which were kept alive for 24 hours with saline solution.

One of B's jobs was to make sure saline solution was constantly present.

No wonder she became a biologist.

Smiling Kym - we loved her hair - read a couple of Love Poems. A dedicated Facebooker, she shared an actual response she got from Sir Paul McCartney!

And, with boldness and good humor, she sent him one of her colorful digital designs, suggesting he use it on his next album.

Best to be bold!

THAT'S COFFEE
by Linda Barrett

She has many names:
java, joe or just simply joe.
hails from many places:
Hawaii, Rwanda, Columbia, Mexico
comes from humble beans
but she’s still the same thing.
That’s Coffee

Take her black with her grainy, gravel voiced taste
makes you face the morning’s hard cold reality.
you need her to keep you going today
slaps you across the face
with her caffeine
she’s hot, dark, and strong
That’s Coffee.

She changes her personality and
dialect like a professional actress
becomes bold ballsy Italian espresso,
creamy sweet cappuccino,
French Roast
even dyes her roast Blonde
That’s Coffee

She’s the legal social butterfly drink
makes you share in other company:
polite or rude
try to sweeten her
with syrup or sugar
cream or half and half
add donuts or dessert
No matter what
she’s always the center
of attention
That’s Coffee

CHEERING ME ON

From my back porch
where I sit and watch for
hummingbirds
I hear them cheering
short-skirted cheerleaders
a mile away at the high school
their legs muscular and
their round breasts haven't
yet drooped with age

I decide the girls are cheering for me
I stand up and walk to the screen
bow a little and hold out my arms
like Jesus
the cardinals, too, are chiming in

Yes, I say out loud
I've been through a lot
And show them the place
my new kidney was stitched in
And remember the last time I was
psychotic
on 9/11
Nazi stormtroopers I thought would
take me away
I almost heard the crazed bee-bop
of their red sirens

I open the screen door
Hear it bang behind me
and walk into the freshness
of the new daffodil day.

BEATRIZ played for us the sound of the cardinal. They set up housekeeping in my forsythia bush.
Shhh! Listen here.