What does coffee offer you
besides the sweetness hidden
in every swallow flowing slowly
along the throat, where nothing
is left but accumulating poison?

And how long will such sweetness
remain in the tongue, if the tongue
is too sweet to taste more sweetness
or too weak to stand any bitterness?
Then how shall I judge what is sweet
or be familiar with something bitter?

Of course, you know many tastes,
as many as the colours of the rainbow
forming the perfect spectrum in the sky.

It is strange that sweetness might kill
and bitterness conversely might cure
But how can I stand coffee temptation
and begin to love slices of bitter melon
while sweetness measures happiness?

Yogyakarta, 22 March 2005