Crosswords

Crosswords

Somedays at the cafe, when I clear away the coffee cups / I touch the spoon that someone used to stir sugar in their tea / Makes me feel closer to them / as though I might cross the great divide / between these strangers and me / I am bringing them toast with a smile on my face / I am watching them laugh, I watch old friends embrace / I am watching them stir the cream in their coffee / They stir clockwise like me // CHORUS: How did I end up so removed from everything? / I'm the girl behind the counter, I'm the spectator at the cafe / I want to close the difference between them and me / These strangers doing crosswords / drinking coffee and tea // In the afternoon the shadows stretch long and thin / from the tables and chairs / A little boy in a striped shirt frowns beside a mother / who doesn't seem much to care / I catch his eye with a smile on my face / His mother turns to him and wipes off a trace / of jelly that he smudged across his right cheek / She tells him to be more careful / and stares out at the street in silence // CHORUS // Sometimes when I look at all their faces / I'm struck with some kind of holy truth / that we are all single waves within an ocean / ebbing and flowing, made of the same endless blue / Someone reaches out and asks me how I'm doing / and I suddenly feel like the might really care / and I answer back to them past layers of armor / and the seeds of compassion are planted somewhere // CHORUS