One Night in a Coffeehouse

“One Night in a Coffeehouse” Free-Verse, March 20, 2017

He sings in the near-empty coffeehouse
About alcohol addiction and love.
He thinks no one in the lackluster crowd is listening.

Two employees try their best to acknowledge him,
While a college student studies his books,
And a lady whose whole life is a musical hums her own tune.

Annoyed by the six laughing ladies in their bible study group,
He changes his line-up to include
All songs he knows that take the Lord’s name in vain.

The ladies talk over the too-loud guitar music,
Determined to finish their lesson,
While he plays louder and louder to drown out the noise.

The ladies ignore him, all but one.
One listens to the man sing out his soul,
Reminded of the coffeehouses of her youth—now long gone.

Where did time go? She wonders.
How did they all end up there,
And is it still art if no one appreciates it?

I wrote this a while back after an unexpected encounter with a traveling musician, Rue Snider, at Penny University in Russellville, Arkansas. I don’t write poetry near as much as I did as a teen and in my early 20s.

-Brandi Easterling Collins