Please stay
I just had the most godawful cup of coffee
I’ve ever had in my life
You’ve got to try it
I drank it at a local diner
Charging specialty prices
Like they didn't buy it from Costco three weeks ago
In bulk, "New 3 lb. Size!" Folger's tubs
– not cans, tubs –
Plastic versions of the ones
My great-grandfather used to spit in
When I was a kid
Boasting "Mountain Grown Quality since 1850,"
His: half full of saliva and cancer
Whose threats amounted to little more than
Minced words
When dementia beat his gums to the punch
Look – eventually –
We're all going to have to leave
But slow down, stay a while
Let's not force it
Gg used to shuffle down the hallway
Through shag carpet that
Covered the house with tentacles
Or a twelve-hundred square foot trampoline
Like Jesus (the only name he never used in vain)
Gliding over storms to take his friend's hand
The old man would float around the corner and
High-five the grandkids
With a thin-lipped grin like
"child, you have no idea what life is."
I want to find out
We had to jump
To reach his hand
And the smack of our skin sounded
Like a pop-tab cracking
Into the morning Budweiser he'd drink
As religiously as you'd sip a cup of coffee
At 7 am
He's all beautiful and
Weathered and leather-skinned like maybe
Gutting so much of that dip throughout the years
Finally began challenging just how much
A body can tolerate before it starts to break down
I know you ask yourself the same question all of the time
Spit it out
You're still here
I'm still here
And still may be as much of a miracle as
Here ever was in the first place
So let's not waste it
We're still here to make a memory, today
Trying to cover up the taste
With cinnamon and mocha powder –
Neither of which quite get the burn out –
But we know how that goes:
You've got enough experience with people
Trying to tame solar flares with band aids to know that
Sprinkling
Platitudes
Onto the scars
On your arms
Will not be enough to convince someone that life is beautiful
But perhaps the wonder of another human being
Actually subjecting himself to drink this
For the sake of being in your presence will
Anyway, i'll tell you all about him if you want
But this cup of coffee:
God, it's horrible! – you've got to try it
I want to hear about your family
Tell me about your great-grandfather
And how he got through the Great Depression
And tell me how you'll get through yours
This moment is a part of it
Breathe
I want to high-five my son's son wearing whatever vintage is 65 years from now
With beauty and pain and wonder and presence written into the
Fault lines all over my face like
"i have made my mistakes and
The
Earthquakes
Are
Real
But they shape you
And the ravines created
Are gorgeous places to
Let the sun cast its shadows through."
We can hold one another's hand in the process
I'll let you squeeze until mine breaks if you must
But don't let go
Tell me about the love of your life
And what color her eyes are
And whether the tint seems to change
Depending upon what she's wearing that day
My wife's fluctuate between
Special dark
And
Milk chocolate
And she
Is
Worth
Living
For
"please stay."
I know you need ears to hear that kind of thing and
I know that those kinds of ears are miracles
I know it's not as simple as being committed
To either life or death
But i know that there is still breath
In both of our lungs so while there's still time
To say it:
"please stay."

Stay for the wedding
I swear the first glimpse of her
Rounding the corner like a dream
Transforms you into nothing and everything
All at the same time
Stay for the reception
For toasts from friends
Whose lives are better off with you
But willing
To subject themselves to the small deaths
That all of us experience
When we have to forego our jealousy
And let the lover in
Stay for the wedding night
All
Awkward
And
Glorious
And
Vulnerable
And
Naked
And
Unashamed
And
Painful
And
Empty
And
Full
And
Imperfect
And
Absolutely perfect
Like the dichotomies you are
And always have been
Like two
Becoming
Something
Else
Stay for the fights
They're devastating and necessary and
If you're able to temper the moment then
I will be the lightening rod you'll need to strike
Over a cup of bad, overpriced diner coffee
At 4 a.m
When the couch springs
Are stabbing you in the back
Or simply stabbing you back
I won't say a word unless you want me to
Stay for forgiveness in the morning
After the sun has gone down on your anger
Or your sadness
Or your wanton abandon
And mercy still finds
You when he peeks his head
Over the mountains to the east
Stay for every memory
We'll embellish around the dinner table
Until it becomes legend –
Not quite the way it happened
But certainly not a lie –
Memorialized and floral
The way that fiction gets at truths like laughter
When we tell the stories year after year
And they grow and we're all sure that
"yes, as a matter of fact
It did rain literal cats and dogs
During our darkest nights"
And we thought God was gory
But they're all grace now and life is movement
And we are healing and breaking
And making and being made
All of the time
This coffee tastes like the bad action movies
That my dad used to love
I imagine him –
Whose absense i feel
Every time DC introduces another Clark Kent
Who will never quite be Christopher Reeves –
Gulping this mud down
And calling it something absurd like
"delicious,"
Had he accepted the invitation
Like the way i loved to help him
Light the pilot
Beneath the hot water heater
In the house we grew up in
Legend
She needs you
He needs you
They need you
We need you
I need you
Please stay
Find what you were made for
I just had the most godawful cup of coffee
I’ve ever had in my life
You've got to try it
It's all worth living for
It tastes like a morning liturgy
And my great-grandfather's high fives
Don't forget that there are voices on the outside of your head, too
And they sound like
Futures
And
Carrying the love that you told me about through the front door of your first home together
And
Hopes
And
Camping with your friends making you to eat the worm at the bottom of some mezcal bottle that you didn't care for
And
Dreams
And
Hiking the Blue Trail through coastal towns in Northern Italy and stopping for bread and wine that costs less than water
And
Music
And
Tucking your daughter into bed at night the first time she moves out of your room and into her big girl bed
And
Love
And
Parking tickets
And
Love
And
Replacing light bulbs in the bathroom
And
Love
And
The promotion you've been working toward
And
Love
And
Being let go
And
Love
And
Holding your friends close when they're breaking into pieces
And
Love
And
Friends holding you close when you're breaking into pieces
And
Love
And
Atrocious cups of coffee and everything that we have to tell one another about where we came from and where we want to go
And
Love
And
All of the help needed to get there
And
Love
And
Being loved
And
Love
And
Love
And
Love
And
Love
And
Love
I just drank the most godawful cup of coffee I've ever had in my life...
Do you want to try some with me?