It’s true,
I can’t pour from an empty cup

but I can melt it
into bits I chew
for the illusion of digestion
that lets someone function
one more minute
or down to a liquid,
in the cast iron
catch basin I tilt,
pouring that viscous substance
on whatever has lost
its natural shell

before scraping up plastic
from where it’s set
or been spat out

just to start again
with the cup I hold
a symbol
more impressive and eternal
than my ever more
malnourished
pedestal of a body

as observers
with too-distant
utilitarian attitudes
ask why more things
aren’t like
those nice stoic cups
you can usefully recycle,
or the unassuming one
that caught the blood of Christ
without complaint.

Paul Edward Costa is an award-winning poet, spoken word artist, and teacher. He is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets, a Poet Laureate Emeritus for the City of Mississauga, and a former Director of Toronto's Art Bar Poetry Series. He has published many poems and stories in journals such as Train: A Poetry Journal and Subterranean Blue Poetry. His full-length poetry collection, The Long Train of Chaos, was released by Kung Fu Treachery Press and his book of flash fiction, God Damned Avalon, was published by Mosaic Press.