16. Tell-tale Coffee : Now the Loss Is Ours

The espresso is mine, the sugar yours. May I have the sugar please, I ask. Sure, you offer. I drink my espresso with your sugar. I look down at my empty cup, and I want to cry. If you didn't give me the sugar, I would still have my espresso, and you your sugar, I protest. That which is waiting to be shared, lies in the loss, the lost, and in losing. We shared nothing before this, you say. Now the loss is ours. Losing too is still ours.

*The coffee tale is inspired by Rilke's "For Hans Carossa", Ms. Longstocking's new project on loss, and the many espressos I drank in Naples, Italy.