I always leave a little bit of coffee in the bottom of the cup.

'Cause it's like a cliffhanger.

Maybe I'll have another cup

but probably not, because I don't like coffee very much.

But I'd hate to tell the coffee that, and surely it'd be a lonely cup if I drank it all down.

This way it has hope, even if it is a false hope.

This way it gets let down softly. Coffee takes awhile to get cold.

And by then everyone's forgotten about it anyway, and it'll just be lost in the corner of a diner after 2 AM on a Thursday night and sit.

and sit.

and sit.

It'l grow accustomed to the pattern of cracks on the wall

and the awful orange of the sticky counters,

and then the real shame will be when it finally is found.

Tossed away under banana peels and unfinished pieces of pie.

But it doesn't mind,

Even if it does wish it belonged to someone with a life more eventful + exciting.

It was a faithful cup of coffee, and its purpose was served.