Get Caffeinated

Memento Mocha

with apologies to Billy Collins

The baking soda measurements are the first to go
followed obediently by the flour, the sugar,
the order in which you mix them, the entire recipe
which suddenly becomes one you have never made, never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the foods you used to make
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a Tupperware party where there are no lids.

Long ago you kissed the names of the fancy coffees goodbye
and watched the sandwiches back their bags,
and even now as you learn how to use the new computer system,

something else is slipping away, a regular's face perhaps,
the price of a muffin, the name of a delivery guy.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue
or even lurking on some obscure page of the employee handbook.

It has gone down the drain at the end of the day like the tea
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to steam milk and how to make change.

No wonder you stop in the middle of the shift
to look up how much espresso goes in a latte.
No wonder the baked goods in the case seem to have drifted
out of a recipe that you used to know by heart.

by Mary Elizabeth

in volume 4 issue 2

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