Bottom of the Cup

Writing Challenge with Martin Rushton

Was it in the bottom of your cup that you saw the shape of tomorrow after the black coffee laced with white was long-consumed, after the taste faded, and the coffee smudge dried on the rim of a cup you’ve kept longer than a relationship or a job or the will to make changes?

Was it there when you looked down like writing on a wall or a slap on the head? Was it easy to see or cloudy and vague like when waking up is a struggle ’cause a dream has you by the toe and won’t let go?

Perhaps, it was a face — yours or another’s, someone you’d just as soon forget even though they haven’t forgotten you or prickly memories of who you were, what you did, or what you didn’t do when you should have.

Whatever the future looked like there in the bottom of your cup on a morning too ripe, almost stinking in decay, did you get the message?

Did you figure it out?

That you’re not a frigging island alone, untouched and untouching?

You are the water that flows by everything, touches everyone, changing all in its path, for good or for — well, for what you’ve been doing for such a long time that wasn’t good or productive or commendable.

There in the bottom of your cup did you see what was lost — unretrievable in the coffee grinds of forever?

Did you care?

Or, did you pour another cup, hoping for a future other than the one you deserve?

Martin Rushton asked for a prompt and I gave him “Bottom of the Cup”, then joined him in responding. Here is his: