Meditation on an Artifact

The fug of old coffee,

rung around the bottom of

a disposable cup

(Actually, all cups are

like all things, disposable,

but this one was

fashioned to be trash

fast. It will last

coincidentally virtually eternally.)

The lost quantity,

the margin, the forgotten

molecules

too strung out on

surface tension

to make the pilgrimage to my

lips wished-for or not.

Freeze-dried and reconstituted

(in an instant, so they say),

now they lay,

evaporate drying into

the petroleum product

crevices,

unrinsable,

safe from scrubbing

by virtue of

futility.

The instant is gone.

Pretend, Nescafé,

to be infinite in your

rubbish exile,

but in reality only

polystyrene is forever.

Stuart Ravn of Anchorage studied linguistics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.