Haiku 2023–341

inseparable

from the rest of humankind

and the universe

— —

This is a haiku about coffee.

My coffee this morning comes from Sumatra and Latin America by way of a roasting plant in the United States and my daughter’s workplace here in town.

I used a paper filter invented in Germany, made in Florida, from North American trees.

The city pumped water from the ground five miles away, piped it to the other side of town, and gravity brought it here to my faucet. From there, it was poured into a filter from Germany then dumped into a coffee maker from the Netherlands. Who knows how long the individual water molecules lay underground before reaching me? Days? Weeks? Years? Eons? All of the above?

Electricity made this happen. The electric grid makes it difficult to know how the power was generated. Was it the burning organic matter dug or pumped from the ground that had laid their millions of years? Did rain fall from the sky and pass through a hydroelectric dam on the way to the sea? Did a photon travel 93 million miles from the sun and strike a solar panel? Did wind sweeping across the earth move a large propeller just the right amount? How far away did all this happen?

I use half and half in my coffee. Many farmers all over the country got up early to milk their cows to make this happen.

I poured my coffee into a cup made by a shop here in town and painted by my daughter. I dipped biscotti made in Arizona and took a bite, completing the journey to me.

What about from me?

Will the caffeine alter my mood and how I deal with people today? Will I choose to have this coffee again tomorrow or make another choice that follows a completely different logistical chain. How will that decision affect every single person involved in bringing my morning coffee to me? I know part of what I drank today will start making it’s way to the sea here in a couple of hours, will other parts of it be scattered wherever I travel until I myself am buried in the cold, dark earth?

I write today to understand the vast universe by focusing on something mundane and small. I’ve enjoyed the journey. I hope you have too.