The Congress Café

At The Congress Café in Austin, Texas,
A group of men & women came in,
Workers in some state office.
They ordered drinks, then meals.
After just twenty minutes,
You could hear the drink they’d drunk
Suddenly, happily, speak out in them.
This sound of community went on until we left.
I have no doubt that afterwards
The drink they had taken
Coupled some of them in matching ecstasies
On Murphy beds.

How many things seek their voice in us?
Unsuspected demons & angels
Wait for the arrangement we provide
Of gut, enzyme, funny bone, nervous system, mind.

Blood we lost long ago?
(On Frederick’s great battle field
When first he conquered Angria)
Seeking to recirculate once more?

The apples of the orchard young Elmer Scheerer’s Father planted
Which his son pressed into cider barrels, then drank
Which then became his wild mouth organ music
Played from a Pippin tree top, or (husband) on wilder bed spring,
Printing press of his sons, Stanley & Geordie,
Early friends of mine,
O Congress Café.

James Reaney, 2005

“The Congress Café” is from Souwesto Home, a collection of James Reaney’s poems from 2005 available from Brick Books.

( ( ( 0 ) ) ) Listen to Jeff Culbert read “The Congress Café” and other poems from Souwesto Home here.