Bridgehead

We met on the bus, side-by-side, read­ing books that both won Nobel Prizes.

I was sup­posed to meet you here three years ago, and they’re out of apple cider. The cran­ber­ry cider is tart, but only too much when you sip it so. There’s a sub­tly dis­tinct taste to it, bare­ly enough to stop me from won­der­ing if I just paid $2.45 for warm cran­ber­ry juice. I did­n’t even want this drink; I just want­ed to sit down and write.

I nev­er would have come here if you had­n’t sug­gest­ed it. There are too many peo­ple. Too many going for the fresh­ly-ground­ed, shade-grown, fair trade bull­shit that’s been mar­ket­ed to the hip­sters who think they’re doing the world a favour by patron­iz­ing the right kind of places. Pretentious peo­ple who come here to read, then put their head­phones on because it’s too noisy.

I don’t fit in. That’s prob­a­bly a good thing.

I was sup­posed to meet you here three years ago, but your boyfriend got jeal­ous and would­n’t let you come.

We met on the bus, and I haven’t seen you since.

7 comments

  1. fair trade bull­shit that’s been mar­ket­ed to the hip­sters who think they’re doing the world a favour by patron­iz­ing the right kind of places.”

    I will only com­ment on this one point as it is one I find annoy­ing as well (like­ly the least impor­tant part of your post but what­ev­er :-) ). What arro­gance and sense of self-impor­tance we have to assume that by walk­ing through one door rather than anoth­er and plac­ing our $2 in one cash box as opposed to anoth­er that we can change the uni­verse. Sure we can change…change our selves first. Make you damn cof­fee at home! Now…to enjoy my hor­ri­ble Tim Horton’s cof­fee in peace.

  2. This post sums up to me all the best points about you and your writ­ing. Period.

  3. Thank you for shar­ing this, Jeff. This is why I con­tin­ue to read you. Powerful stuff, and worth the wait.

  4. You’re a great writer, and I’ve only read one entry! =)
    Well, I got­ta say myself too, I don’t fit in either.

  5. @Lloyd — I’m glad some­one agrees with me on this. And I agree that we should change our­selves first, but the fun­ny thing is that peo­ple have a hard enough time just doing that. Maybe cof­fee shop patron­age is the way peo­ple can feel good about them­selves with­out real­ly try­ing.

    And every part of my posts are impor­tant. :)

    @Xibee — Some very nice words. Thank you.

    @Jeff Starr — Are you imply­ing that my best entries are so few and far between that you need to wait for them? :D

    @Georgina — Thanks!

  6. Rarely I find such a great writ­ing. Thought-pro­vok­ing..
    Two thumbs up!

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