Coffee-fee

Every morning
I am chained to my coffee cup
Sugar-high, caffeine buzz
Awake as one can be
After insomniac ideation
And evening rendezvous
Trying to exceed expectations
On a drowsy, drugged mind

It is not an addiction.

Here's how it works:
Scramble out of bed
10 minutes past the deadline
40 after the second alarm
And in the nick of time
To throw on something acceptable
And do the daily rituals
On a speedy automatic

It is not a habit.

Screeching tires, loud music
Nervous foot tapping
On anxious gas pedal
Hoping the brakes won't be necessary
On the flying flee to future fandangles
in the punctual world of work;
Getting there is only half the battle.
In my mind's eye, the coffee cup
Stands gleaming.

I am not always late.

The neurons need a wake up
Automated adrenaline breaks down
And the gears whine and complain
And there we go,
Sugar, Honey, Vanilla, Cream
The coffee is the expensive after-thought
of necessity
At the end of a bleary tunnel.

I'm not entirely awake.

And then it leaks: CURSES!!!!
I wonder what I did to deserve this
unrequited affection for the addiction
that awakens my sleeping aesthetic.
Tortured upon the rack
With dreams that ought to be dreamt
Still sleeping
and not upon the screens of my
hollow eyes and the practiced smoothness
Of the keyboard

I'm really quite responsible.

The devastation that is involved
In the transport of coffee from
co-op to workplace
Is worthy of an entirely separate poem
Suffice to say, doused in hot sugared,
caffeinated solution
From head to toe and bumper to bumper
it is a miracle that one
Repeats the ordeal
On a faithful, daily basis.
Paying bills just doesn't seem
Enough
to undergo this kind of morning torture

I'm not a very good example, am I?

I'm not certain why
A race as advanced technologically as us
Is in the thrall of a messy, sticky, unhealthy
Inconvenient addiction
To caffeine
Simply in order to survive
The daily grind.
But output would not equal input
If our nation's demographics didn't complete the caffeine course
Required in the repertoire of every working whirlwind
Every weary waking.