The Raw Coffee Bean.(Revised Ending)

Last night I chewed on a coffee bean,
Crunching it between my front teeth
Until the flavours oozed out
                                   Dark and bitter
Blood of Brazilian berries.

A raw sub tropical coffee bean
                   Crushed into fine powder
Sharp as an uncooked lemon,
              A bee sting on my tongue tip
Hot with pain and pleasure.

The coffee bean was fragile,
                       But a bee is also fragile
When she fires her single sting
                      Into the eloquent tongue

Of her betrayer.
The sting cuts deep a sore that cannot heal.

And so again last night,
          The bitter tang that burnt my lips,
                                       my taste buds,
Scorched right through a scar that sealed
                                            a memory
From the caustic light.

And suddenly her face is not in shadow,
And suddenly
        That girl in the Mexican courtyard
Looks back at me from half my life ago.

An astonishing girl I betrayed because I

                                                feared her.

I did not believe her when she talked of
                                                 marriage.
I did not want her kiss upon my mouth.
She tasted of Russian cigarettes and coffee,
And secret Mayan dreams I could not fathom.

I did not believe her when she stroked my
                                                  forehead
With fingers long and supple, soft with
                                                          care;
And so I betrayed her curtly with a laugh,
                     A jaunty, off hand English laugh.
I cannot now recall her name.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
July 29th. - 30th.- August. 3rd. 2020. - August 28th. 2021.