Wasp in a Coffee Cup in Howe Library

 Wasp in a Coffee Cup in Howe Library

Maybe I’ll let him loose outside

Maybe I’ll throw him in the trash

He seemed pretty weak and sickly,

But maybe he’ll get loose

And sting the shit out of my skinny ass.

He wasn’t pollinating anything

Just crawling up the window

And falling back down again. 

I hold his vibrating soul in limbo now.

I really have to write this essay

I feel like him– at first buzzing

At the wet paper prison wall

But then quieting and sitting

In a brown puddle, thinking about it all.

Stone Cold Coffee in Billings Library

 The last sip of coffee I just took

At a table on the balcony in Billings Library

Overlooking the huge fireplace

Was stone cold. 

It wasn't even a real sip,

Only a brown crescent moon

Which I espied through the mouthpiece

Of the plastic lid of my paper cup.

The coffee chilled me to the bone

When it dribbled on my tongue stone cold,

And I sure wish that old fireplace

Was blasting warm air across my face.