Kisses At The Espresso Bar

The Espresso Bar in Graphite pencil art by Anthony Gartmond, New Jersey, USA

All dressed and out. High heels tick-ticking between hide, membrane, and cloth, barely touching, just hinting. So were the shades and lights, and the froths in the cups and the cakes, and the sugars and the creams, swirling like sips in the dips of the lips and the hips. Seemingly in an animated conversation. 

“Some gulp us down too quickly forcing us to burn their tongues and throats. Some give long respites forcing us to cool down and leave no pleasure in the sips. And her, she seems a bit tense, a bit lost, her attention span is low. She coils us in the cups long enough for us to snooze, and then with a glance at the server for the check, she dumps us like a peeled banana left on a counter too long. She doesn’t know we are the best of best of Brazilian Cake Lady, leaving a craving for your touch, your kisses, innately inside…” 

The sheen and the glean in the coffee machine remain unseen as counters, spic and span, take centre stage. Stage is immaculate, swept, dusted, prop-less, and raw with Dali’s eerie cupboard women holding the curtains with their boney hands. Knowledge, wisdom, enigma, passion is brewed in one, as the counters gesture to her to perk up. She holds her fingers tersely, glancing here and there, her lipstick leaving tales and tails. “I really want to be cool today. As cool as music notes on bare backs, as cool as the violin ready to be played in Le Violon d’Ingres. I want to swoon and let go,” she whispers to someone on the phone. Animated conversations are nudging each other breathlessly. The sips in the dips in the lips and the hips are ready as she hurries out blowing kisses at froths in the cups, and the cakes, and the sugars and the creams. 

*Brazilian Cake Lady: A rich coffee flavour of chocolate and peanut butter produced by Red Bay * Le Violon d’Ingres, Man Ray’s art done in 1924