Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine

 

Two People Who Love Their Coffee
by Ellen Friedman

 

We meet, my son and I. He stirs his coffee. I clasp my hand around my cup.
We say nothing.
A conversation starts in his eyes.
He touches my finger.
I understand.
Two cups of coffee steam.
He tells me he’s become a Big Brother.
He never spoke about this before.
I wonder how he figures out these things,
so young, and always smiling.
I sip my coffee.
I tell him when he was two
I held him by the sink,
showed him how to brush his teeth,
explained each step of the routine.
He tells me about his script,
that it takes place in Brooklyn,
who he’d cast to play the parts.
There is something that reminds me
of his father in the story.
I keep this to myself.
I dip anisette toast in my coffee.
He eats a cheese sandwich.
His cheeks become flushed.
So do mine.
I never think about the distance
between us when he leaves,
him in LA, me in NY,
just Sunday coffee.

 

 

 

Ellen Friedman is a single mom, whose son is also a writer. She has worked in film distribution for over 25 years. She is a member of Mary Stewart Hammond's master poetry workshop. Her poems will appear in the summer issue of Main Channel Voices and The New Zealand Review.  She currently lives in New York.