The barista has mastered all the skills of coffee making:
she knows about temperature,
about timing, the art of composition,
the composition of her art.
She knows about aroma and flavor,
how to pour, how to save the world.
She could be anything, and is,
behind the practiced movement of her hands,
behind the light coffee chat —
a continent, a rich topography, unfiltered
amongst the coffee bushes
on the verdant earth of Hawaii, Costa Rica,
on the slopes of a volcano in Guatemala,
her dark, her pungent beans, roasted, ground,
the froth of her life only her loves will taste.
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