While tiny boxes of cereal and the Danish
under glass with tiny black tongs sit,
I drink the coffee air of the official morning
with pink Sweet and Low and blue Equal
sugar packets leaving a few crumbs on the table.
I grab a paper and head back to the elevator
so I can finish the crossword before I check out
but I never finished, having spent too long
reading about the war, hoping it would answer
32 across or 61 down.
M. N. O’Brien received his B.A. from Roanoke College, where his work was published in On Concept’s Edge and received the Charles C. Wise Poetry Award. His work has been most recently published in The Camel Saloon, SOFTBLOW, Crack the Spine and Counterexample Poetics. He feels awkward writing in the third person and enjoys being repetitive, drinking ice coffee, listening to David Bowie, being repetitive and lame jokes.