co(c on) spirat (ors)

Over Coffee

I sit at the wooden table

Next to the cappuccino

Covered in white foam,

Schaum as you called it,

Your voice quivering

And breaking in its English

But confident, powerful,

In control in its Deutsch.

You’ve since stopped speaking

English to me at all,

And my voice quivering

And breaking in its Deutsch

And also in its English.