DO NOT DELETE The Art of Losing Oneself in a Cup of Coffee

Pane e Tulipani
Bread and Tulips?
Emphatic no!

It's SacherDemeltorte!
We are at Demel's,
after all.

Wiener Melange
Translation: Cappuccino,
Viennese Style
Would you believe that
when I am at Demel's,
I lust not after their sweets
but the silver sugar bowl?

Kandierte Veilchen
Candied Violets
You may eat the candy,
I keep the box.
Deal?

Kleine Naschereien
Small Sweet Temptations
All I am seeing
is this pretty little
three tiered dessert stand!

Fire Place Mantle
Being a world class pâtisserie and chocolatier,
you ought to have a fire place in your shop,
with a large mirror above
to better reflect your treasures,
don't you agree?
Oh well!
Once upon a time,
when I was a little girl,
the room with the fire place
was furnished with coffee tables and chairs.
Yes, in the good old times
you were able to sit around the fire place
at Demel's,
sipping Kaffee mit Schlag and nosh on Demeltorte
and feeling right at home.
Imagine
the stories that mantle could tell,
the secrets, the moods, the sheer humanity
it must have absorbed,
while people did nothing
but drinking coffee.
Or so they say.

An Empty Cup
Good coffee served,
a few pages read,
our quiet contemplation
has to come to an end,
"that enchanted realm
containing all the wealth
and riches of the world" *)
has to be left behind, again.

*

*) Quoted from
Xavier de Maistre's "A Journey Around My Room"
(who wrote this book in 1790,
while under house arrest for forty-two days
as punishment for having gotten himself into a duel).
The French original,
"Voyage autour de ma chambre,"
is available online,
at the "Association de Bibliophiles Universels" website.