The Nespresso Machine In The Attic
By John Fraser
When life stops because of a virus.
When the coffee shops gradually close.
When you find your face scowling
at the taste of harsh instant coffee
sipped slow during your ‘countryside walk’.
Twelve steps to the back garden fence, twelve steps back to the kitchen door.
Twelve steps to the back garden fence …twelve steps back to the kitchen door.
The option of extra sugar but still the taste is bitter sweet,
the tastes of dwindling options closing
like the doors of the boarded up shops and bars in the street.
The option of living room, dining room, bedroom or kitchen –
but one space forgotten –
the rarely used attic with that unused Nespresso machine.
The sudden option of a smooth double latte –
transformed into an Nespresso-drinking George Clooney –
(from that series of rather memorable adverts)
jogging pants replaced by a sharp suit and tie as I sit in the yard.
Not admittedly surrounded by Natalie Dormer or Nicole Kidman
but a certain tranquillity and the sound of bird song,
Do seagulls really fly 40 miles inland to squawk in a locked down Croydon?
I’d never noticed before.
A cloud with a silver lining perhaps?
A comparison ruined by the fact that the spring day is cloudless –
blue sky air as freshly chilled as an iced Cappuccino
The mind freed to possibilities such as writing a poem
or something else I’d never thought of for years –
or simply freed to unlock my own inner space.The ‘Nespresso Machine’ is a cunning device.
Like the Tardis of a Time Lord it can take many guises –
A picture of a long forgotten friend.
A dusty old book with new ideas.
A jigsaw that frees the mind from
the constant tedium of four walls
and creates your own inner attic space.
Brings hope the freedoms your body normally has to explore
the world will likely return –
subject of course to the government getting a grip!
Though whether or not the world you explore
will include Natalie Dormer or Nicole Kidman
(or George Clooney should that be more to your taste)
is still a debatable point!
- John Fraser lives in Thornton Heath and is a published author – mainly on the paranormal. His latest book on poltergeists is published later this year. Fraser is also a very keen coffee drinker
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