Leftover Milk in a Little Cup

Leftover Milk in a Little Cup
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Don't mind me
looking at the leftover milk in my little cup
whiteness watching whiter-ness
staring hard

If there's an answer
it's at the bottom of this cup
leftover lightness, white on white
the porcelean cracked and stained with yesterday's coffee

I cup my hands to catch the milky rain
and lift it to my wet mouth
my cheeks cold numbed and blued
and wonder at the cold sting in my toes
tight in my cowboy boots

This highway so recently so hot
the images so recently wavering in the road heat
Dallas dust dry and white
white as the insanely hot Irving sky
your image a wavering image
dry and white and your cheeks cold and blue
and for this single moment I am you
in my rain
in my heat
in my little white cup
in my leftover milk.
-Tim Allen
Antigua, Guatemala, August 1998