www.thepublicreader.com     |   home LISTEN   |   CSPAN American Writer Series   |   Book Reviews   |                                                                                                       |   THE PUBLIC READER'S PUBLIC SQUARE   |         America's New Role Models   |                                                                                                          |   SHORT STORIES   |   The Village   |   bridge from a snowy place   |   The neighborhood eight and A. jones   |   nightsounds   |   The Birdman of Carter's Lake   |   Neverland   |   Photographs   |   Saved by Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald   |   The Loneliness of the Late-Night Donut Shop   |   ________________________________________________   |   A NOVELETTE   |   An Eternity Together: A Romantic Fantasy   |         Part I   |         Part II   |         Part III   |         Part IV   |         Part V   |         Part VI   |   _________________________________________________   |   POETRY   |   Poetry of Jim Kittelberger   |         I Knew You But A Moment   |         Obsolete   |         Rain   |         I Thought About Death Today   |         The Spiders Web   |         The Midnight Train   |         Fathers, Sons and Grandsons   |         Be A Man, They Say   |         When I Daydream   |                                                                                                               |   Poetry of Jeff Kersh   |   Coffee Shop   |   Lost In War   |   The Soldier   |   Poetry of Jerry Vilhotti   |   Masters Poetry   |   World Poetry Audio Library   |   __________________________________________________   |   CHILDREN'S TALES   |   a special creation   |   Professor Knowitall's Magnificient? Invention   |   the ring   |   whiffers   |   Farmhouse Fables   |   Aesop's Fables   |   Bedtime-Story   |   ____________________________________________________   |   INTERACTIVE-HANDS ON CHILDREN'S STORIES   |   Bones   |   Sad Samantha, The Sparrow   |   ____________________________________________________   |   ESSAYS   |   Word Pfun   |   On The Road Again   |   Baseball, I Love It   |   Retirement Plans   |   A Daughters Eulogy For Her Father   |   Hometown-an essay   |   a retired man's period of adjustment   |   ____________________________________________________   |   MASTER STORYTELLERS   |         JEAN SHEPHERD   |               When Schwartz wiggled his ears, that was history   |                                                                                                                     |   ART   |   American art by American masters   |   American Artists in the Twenty-First Century   |         Tom Sierak   |         Chamel Raghu   |   Illustrators   |         Maxfield Parrish   |         N.C. 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Leyendecker   |   ____________________________________________________   |   AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY   |   DECADE BY DECADE FROM KINGWOOD COLLEGE LIBRARY   |   The Nineties   |   The Eighties   |   The Seventies   |   The Sixties   |   The Fifties   |   The Forties   |   The Thirties   |   The Twenties   |   1910-1919   |   1900-1909   |   _____________________________________________________   |   DIVERSIONS AND DELECTATIONS   |   Cal's Gallery Plus   |   Chess   |   Country Life   |   Crosswords   |   Daily Computer Tips   |   Duct Tape Press   |   Free Library of Classics   |   Friends of The Public Reader   |   Heroes   |   Humor   |         Strange Breed   |         Suddenly Senior   |         Religious Cartoon   |   The Irascible Professor   |   Let me think about this   |   Links to sites you'll enjoy   |   Nostalgia   |   A Little Shakespeare   |   The Radio Page   |   Singleminded   |   Tom Paine.com(mon) sense   |   World Net Daily   |                                                                                                                       |   Submissions and Feedback Coffee Shop By Alan Goodson Old men with nothing to do, Who haven't gotten started yet... A circle of old friends...coffee hot and bitter, like some memories of youth gone by. Reliving the past with half-remembered stories, half-baked lies, and imagined truths only half-discovered. Their days nothing more than fallen leaves swept up in the cold, hard winds of time. Remaining days of their lives measured in cups, Cups of sorrowful lament, filled to the brim with memories of paths not traveled, choices never considered, chances never taken, love never found, or lost in the haze of soft regret. Untapped wells of knowledge...life experience seeping through, to form stagnant pools of advice for youth who don't listen, don't care, don't know or wonder about frail words spoken in meaningful jest, by old men whose lives don't seem to matter anymore. Old men with nothing to do, Finished before the day begins... Left to compare scars of battles with life and secrets of success never quite obtained. Steam rising from their cups, like the spirit of their youthful dreams, drifting off into thin air, to mingle with the stale smoke of bridges burned. Weathered faces hiding behind wrinkled masks, sculptured by pain earned from hard work, harder lessons, and hardest times. Arguing over the bill that comes due because they feel all their debts have been paid in full, with interest. The hands of the clock move more swiftly now, speeding onward towards eternity, towards rest, towards another world where the coffee is free, the waitress doesn't expect a tip, and the tables are always clean. Old men with nothing to do, And an eternity to finish... ©1998 e-mail alan@jrily.com website http://www.jrily.com