Coffee and Cigarettes and other poems by Benjamin Blake

Coffee & Cigarettes

Sometimes, life doesn’t seem so bad
A pot of black coffee brewing on the kitchen counter
Cigarette burning peacefully away in the ashtray
One soul, alone
For the time being

A record spins on the player
Dulcet notes whispered through the crack and hiss
A man can feel some small peace
In moments like these

But I will never forget death
That pale and unforgiving mistress
Who is always waiting
Just over the shoulder

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Jill’s Middle Daughter

Those summer Sunday drives
My hand between those stockinged legs
Pleasantly distracting her from the road
As The Cure sang from ’83
And I dreamt
That the season would never end

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Stay Sane

Smoking too much weed
And sleeping under bridges
Doesn’t do wonders
For your equilibrium

When a dropped pack of cigarettes
Isn’t worth the effort
Then you know you’ve got it bad

You’re losing it, man
Sitting on the curb
With hooded head in hands

Next time you wander off
Into the local woodlands
Make sure you find yourself
Before coming back

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Benjamin Blake was born in the July of 1985, and grew up in the small town of Eltham, New Zealand. Since then, he has spent time in Australia, and Southern California. He is the author of the poetry and prose collections, A Prayer for Late October, Southpaw Nights, Reciting Shakespeare with the Dead, and the novel The Devil’s Children (published in October 2016).