Summary

The speaker reflects on the feelings they experience upon listening to a favorite song. The song carries with it deep loneliness and lovelorn impatience. Both the speaker and the singer wait for someone to come and alleviate their loneliness. The speaker thinks about the welcome harshness of black coffee. It speeds up the heartbeat and brings up old memories. As the speaker drinks, they hear nothing but the lighting of a match, the sound of their cup on the counter, and the ticking clock. They prefer coffee in its purest, unadulterated form, which imitates the feeling of blues music. The speaker considers the major questions and themes in the song while they drink their coffee.

Analysis

“Black Coffee Blues” is a four-stanza prose poem, a form used to create an intimate stream-of-consciousness tone. It begins by addressing the reader: “Even if you never drank...