Poems: on coffee and hipsters

In this week’s Poet’s Corner, Lee Coulson looks at two joined-at-the-hip, modern-day societal manifestations – hipsters and coffee.

Nov 16, 2016, updated Mar 18, 2025

Drive Thru Coffee

Hubcap chrome gleam
Smooth as Steve McQueen

Engine warm to touch
Ride the milk wand clutch

Fuel up the bitter black bean
Exhaust pipe plume of steam

Shuddering, juddering, picking up speed
Revving it hard, espresso lane feed

Amber rich coffee curling into my cup
Indicator light, all filled up.

Jumping on the Beard Wagon

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Heads bowed in apps(lication)
to the white tablets upon high (definition).
Mobile Moses,
biblical beards unraked,
scrolling through scriptural text,
worshipping at the holy church
of the high hipster.

Rakish beanies,
coffee skinnier than their jeans,
five o’clock stubbles casting no shadow.
Gadget war weary, leery of the latest thing,
when the last thing,
still isn’t in stock.
Stuck, when the cutting edge
becomes blunt.

Lee Coulson, originally from Adelaide, lives in Mount Gambier, where he is the librarian at the Mount Gambier TAFE campus. Lee describes himself as not a professional or published writer in any way, just one who enjoys writing, producing poetry and prose, particularly in response to local issues and events. He studied the Advanced Diploma of Professional Writing at Adelaide TAFE. Last week’s poem and today’s two are Lee’s first published works.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.