All I wanted was a cup of coffee.
The night had fallen,
as had the rain,
and the parking lot smelled of
warm wet asphalt
and of summer.

Walking toward the neon lights,
I passed a group of teenagers
sitting in the trunk of a car
and one of them,
desperate for attention,
called out to me
but I ignored him.

The man at the store looked at me
in that way that says “talk to me because
you look like an interesting person”
but I said “all I want is a cup of coffee”
and that was that.