MORNING COFFEE 8 - olive fruit on the branch
by Susan Weber
Fourteen of us occupy one long table made of small ones pushed together. Salads erupt with macadamia nuts. The wait staff hovers with a pepper mill. Pizzas named for Socrates and Dr. Dre vie with the famous southwest BBQ for space on the serving racks. We glance at the game on the muted screen, tune in and out of Morrison, the Fab Four, Aretha drifting down from ceiling tiles. Faces glow with autumnal ale as fourteen patron saints of swimming pools, foreign films, good books, and children can’t help mentioning the clowns gallivanting as the ruling class.
One of us speaks Hebrew and German besides English; in lucent song she’s mastered many more. Across from her the German radiologist whose research has landed her here infects us with her laughter. The American from India gladly speaks of family, his bicycle, his reasons and his rhymes. There is the kind-hearted grandson of Russia, Romania and Poland who can and will fix your software, hardware, and hybrids of the two. There is the Irish-blooded gatherer of people, rememberer of names, brightener of faces. And the Israeli-American entrepreneur, born to deep dive in music and the authored word. Next to him sits the Iranian urologist who carries girls inside her womb. The transplanted grandmother of the twins beams upon her daughter; English words resonate with Farsi depths of tone. One of us, of Lithuanian ancestry, and German, is the faithful steward of properties, the selfless son. There is the daughter of rural Ohio descended from the Swiss, Scotts, Irish, and Brits; she is queen of the 24-carat embrace. Beside her is the spinner of vinyl and stories and windmill strokes, proud New Yorker once removed. There is the Greek scholar who believes we’re all gods and goddesses when you think about it. There is the Russian scholar, book inhaler, maker of houses and friends. And there is the Swiss-Welsh-American who holds this pen.
There are fourteen who prophesy here. Peace thrives somewhere, somehow, impossibly far, and incontrovertibly near.
Photo by Aracuano CC BY-SA 3.0