The Mercury Cafe

when you enter
the mercury cafe,
you don't know

that through the curtain
to your right
lies are just barely audible
over the whir
of a cappuccino machine

that through the curtain
to your left

and downstairs,
poets are preaching the truth
to an audience
that will never understand

and upstairs,
dancers are doing the same
with their bodies.

when you enter
the mercury cafe,
you are an impostor
and you know
what every impostor knows
but you may tell
no one.