Following from “Creatures of the Park” (link attached below), this piece is inspired by my varied experiences at the 2 or 3 cafes I frequent in Colombo city. As with my regular evening walk, I am also a devout tea and latte aficionado. And as a creature of habit, I do tend to absorb the full gamut of gastronomic, service and atmospheric experiences at the handful of places I go to. So here is my affable ode to the characters who, like me, are also found at the oft-frequented coffee places around town.
Angst, amusement and even downright vexation
Are some sentiments that have inspired this particular narration
Because when my adrenaline is not racing haphazardly around
Yours truly can’t weave verse or prose that is profound
So here’s a bit of a congenial ramble
About coffee shop folks and their queer, quirky angles
The first of this set that I chanced to espy
Was the gaggle of ladies who meet over coffee and pie
They are genteel and smiling and conversing lightly
Of Ruwani’s boyfriend and Andrew’s new-found sobriety
Of weddings and parties and stand-out memorial services
Of yoga class affairs and other sexagenarian caprices
Following sharply on the last set’s heels
Is the would-be Romeo who’s eternally spinning his wheels
While on his regular tarriance through the cafe
He’ll go through the motions, happily epitomising the cliche-Sauntering gait, wandering eyes, obnoxiously loud!
Because how else would this Adonis be noticed by the crowd?
This one evokes both frustration and pity
Deluded sense of self; diddly squat in the mental kitty
This next one (my favourite) is quite off the charts
The 93 year old with tremendous love in his heart!
He’s delicate and fragile and yet undauntingly sure
Of his libidinous vigor and marvellous allure
He speaks in faint tones, each gossamer vein outlined
“I want to make love to you”, he solemnly opines. [True story!]
There is also the resident troop of servers
With personas as varied as their gelato flavours
There’s the hero who averts a gastronomic disaster
And the shrinking violet who couldn’t have disappeared faster
You’ll also see “Lurch” on his tropical vacation
Waiting tables, no doubt, for some fiscal augmentation
(Who’d have believed the fiendish frugality
Of the profusely gilded Addams Family!)
There’s also Happy and Dopey and Sneezy and Bashful-
Each cafe with its own quirky take on the fairytale.
The likes of me, of course, continue to be
The nose-in-the-book kind, with the-tail-on-the-seat
Looking up only to rest whining muscles
Perennially ensnared in the Introvert’s social tussle:
Latte on standby, with napkins and spoon
I’m in a world of my own in the bustling tea room
The rest of the coffee shop throng is assorted
The foodies, the guzzlers, the loners, the courted
The suited and booted, the flip-flopped, the Collared*
A theatrical cycle of life streaming onward
This gamut of movement, that with spirit is rife
Is what makes modest coffee shops larger than life
And so I continue to frequent tea rooms and cafes
To delight in the milieu and lacteous lattes.
* Collared: priests, monks and other caffeine-relishing clergymen.
Read “Creatures of the Park” here: https://theroamingdesi.org/2021/05/11/the-creatures-of-the-park-2/
Mahvash Mohtadullah 