Starbucks by Denise Mostacci Sklar

Starbucks

Denise Mostacci Sklar

half caf grande
cappuccino
dry with whip
What’s wrong
with that?
my husband can’t
remember or
bring himself
to say it
aloud so

I write it down
(remembering
long ago my
walks down
Green St.
to corner the grocery
store with mother’s list
crumpled in my pocket
Wonder bread
cigarettes-Kents, two packs,
Kotex feminine napkins…)

he orders a black
coffee for
himself managing to say
“ahh…tall”, which is really
small because grande
is really medium
and that’s as far
as he’ll go

he hands
the piece of paper
my scribbled order
over to the
cheerful cashier
silent
deliberate
as if
robbing
a bank.


About the Author

Denise Mostacci Sklar has had a career as a dancer and now has had the good fortune to discover writing as another way to move through life. She particularly enjoys the stillness…waiting for words to make an entrance. Her most recent work can be found in Wilderness House Literary Review, Untitled, with Passengers, Vagabond City Literary Journal, Dark Matter, Lowestoft Chronicle, and The Muse: An International Journal of International Poetry.