In This Dirty Old Part of the City

I am pretty much allergic to coffee, I think. If I have just a few sips I get dizzy with mania. I drink black tea all the time and it doesn't do anything noticeable except make me a wee less tired. Sometimes at work if I am really tired I'll mix up a mug of coffee (6 sugars, 2 creams) and it is always a mistake. Every time, here I am, hands unsteady and heart pounding. It's no good for office work, that's for dang sure. The bright bands of fluorescent light and the shick-shick-shick sound of paper are like ghouls closing in around me. It's twenty-two minutes until quitting time, I see. Twenty-one, twenty, oh goodness, oh my, I gotta get out of this place.


By: Robert S. Johnson III, via.