sliver of coffee shop time

man w/ great gatsby
t-shirt sits down,

no more
cigarettes,
think I'll get the
flu,

a backwards "open"
sign, the same
tattered
shoes
as me,

look,

scrawny old white man
who plays chess
w/ fat middle-aged
black man,

striped hoodie, brown derby,

rings of
dried cappuccino
sip marks marking
time past on glass
mug,

maybe like twenty or
thirty people here,
not quite the song you first
thought when it started playing,

but just missed
the black chess player
wiping his lip w/ his napkin,
white chess player
punching numbers
into his phone with the
stylus, here I am

drinking juice and
coffee at the same time
and they aren't playing
chess tonight