Breakfast is served!

     Carrie Levin and William Perley say in their cookbook The Good Enough to Eat Breakfast, "Breakfast is all about memories of buttery toast, sizzling bacon, freshly brewed coffee, and the snug warmth of a kitchen on a cold day." I think this sentence can perfectly sum up my representation of breakfast. Indeed, when I read this sentence, I can smell the warm pieces of toast still in the toaster, the bacon in the fried pan. In fact, I have the picture of me going down in the kitchen still asleep smelling the nice smell of coffee still warm in the coffee maker with the voice of my mum saying "morning darling", looking through the window and seeing the cold Winter outside. I absolutely love this picture that is why I love breakfast so much!


      But actually, who does not like breakfast? Substantial or not, sweet or not, breakfast is the first meal of the day during which people can eat quite everything. We all have our little ritual every morning. Some of us like having a cup of coffee and read the newspaper or some of us prefer have a glass of orange juice watching TV for example. There are many possibilities on how having a breakfast. 

      Moreover, my love for this particular meal comes from the fact that indeed, we can eat everything and most of all sweet things as much as we want as it is the most important meal of the day. Everything begun when I arrived at university and when I had to cook by and for myself. I am like Bilbo, the character of the book, The Hobbit (1937) by Tolkien J.R R. because I have my breakfast in the morning and a second one later during the day. Usually when I am too lazy to cook one evening I just get everything out of my cupboard and put it on the table and I have another breakfast. Then I also like the fact that we can eat quite a lot of things and as I like sweet things, French breakfast is just perfect for me! The other thing interesting is that breakfast is not the same according to countries and to cultures. Breakfast in the United Kingdom for example, was an ordeal for me in the first weeks... 

     However, one existential question appears for people who like breakfast so much but who also like sleeping in, am I going to have my breakfast or my lunch?? England had the brilliant idea to invent the Brunch! This particular "meal" resolved the problem of my life! 

     In my blog I will deal with several things such as the difference between French and British breakfasts or the presence of the meal in children's literature and why it is important and in addition to that what people do while having their breakfast? 

Some basic elements of History to begin with.

      Breakfast is the first meal of the day. According to nutritionists, it is the most important meal of the day because it brings everything people need to well begin a day. Basically, people may eat everything for breakfast. 

       The first breakfasts as we know began in the 19th century, when working and middle class men had to go to work every day at regular hours. Women and servants would serve to men a great bowl of porridge following by the basic English breakfast: toast, eggs, bacon.

      We can find this in Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). She says that a good breakfast should propose game pies, sausages, bacon and eggs, butter, marmalade, toast, muffin, jam, coffee and tea.

      If we have a look at a recipe with eggs as it is a very important ingredient in British Breakfast, let's take it from The Good Enough to Eat Breakfast Cookbook by Carrie Levin and William Perley because I really like this particular cook book it is funny with little anecdotes and very easy recipes very well explained. Levin is a famous chef serving "good, old-fashioned American food." She opened her first restaurant, The Good Enough to Eat. People from all around the world come to eat plates such as Macaroni and Cheese, Lemon Parmesan Chicken, Sweet Potato Fries or Meatloaf or Turkey Dinners. 

The recipe that I would like to share is Bacon-Tomato-Gruyere Omelette:

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons clarified butter

1 ounce (1 1/2 slices) of cooked bacon cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 eggs

1 ounce (1/4 cup) grated Gruyere cheese (don't pack it down!)

1 ounce (1/2 of a small) plum tomato, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch cubes.

Directions:

After the butter is good and hot in the pan, scatter in the bacon. Shake the pan once to make sure the bacon is not sticking. Now pour in the beaten eggs. Tilt and pull a couple of times and sprinkle in the cheese, keeping it well in the eggs. Pull a couple more times to cook to desired doneness.

Scatter in the tomato pieces, avoiding the edge of the pan. Immediately (almost!) depan the omelette, flipping it into a half circle on your warmed plate. The tomatoes will be sufficiently warmed be being folded into the omelette at the end of the process and shouldn't be cooked so much as to release their water. Water in the pan will cause sticking.

She adds a note about an particular anecdote at the end as she often does: 

One day I remarked to Keith, a chef who had been with me for many years, that I always seem to be putting cheese in my omeletpes. He said, "An omelette without cheese is a day without sunshine!"

     However, over the few decades, breakfast changed and people like John Kellogg, W.K. Kellogg developed ready-meal cereal that revolutioned breakfasts because it took less time than cook every thing especially appreciated because servants began to disappear little by little after the 1880s. These cereals became even more appreciated during the war when bacon and fish were rationed and even after when women entered the workplace and did not have time to prepare cooked breakfast for the children. The other good point was that children could serve themselves breakfast.

     More and more food was created to vary the breakfast though years. However, less and less people takes time to have a real good breakfast...

British Breakfast: Theory

     If we have a quick look at The Great British Breakfast (1981), by Read J. and Manjon M., British Breakfast has a real history. In Tudor times, current breakfast was "bread, butter, cheese and bacon", fruits were not eaten because they were quite expensive, so they were reserved to rich people. In the seventeenth century, tea and coffee revolutionized the way people had their breakfast. Indeed, people drank them instead of beer or wine during breakfast. 

However, one thing has not changed and is still in the plate of British people at breakfast: the eggs.

They are often served poached, fried or boiled. 

Let's have a look at one author of cook books of the 1800s, Eliza Acton who gives a recipe of boiled eggs in her book Modern Cookery (1845): 

'First put some boiling water into a large basin and let it remain for a few seconds, then turn it out, lay in the eggs, and roll it over to take the chill off the shell, that it may not crack from the sudden application of heat; and pour in quite boiling water from a kettle, until it is completely immersed. Put a plate over it instantly, and let it remain upon the table, for twelve minutes, when it will be perfectly and beautifully cooked, entirely free from all flavour and appearances of rawness, and yet so lightly and delicately dressed as to suit even persons who cannot take eggs at all when boiled in the usual way.' 

     Eggs were often served with bacon (fried or grilled) or ham. People of that time could also have eggs and fried or backed in the oven pork sausages. 

     Another famous element eaten during breakfast was porridge. More often eaten during Winter, a bowl of oatmeal and milk is very nutritive and is a good way to keep the body warm. Also called Gruel, this particular dish is described in some books such as Jane Eyre (1847) by Bronte C. It appears twice in the novel, the first one is when she first came at Lowood and they all have burnt porridge even if they are hungry and the second time is when Jane is homeless and a woman give her a bowl of congealed porridge that the pigs would not eat. So, porridge in this particular novel is introduced to emphasized the fact that Jane is poor and has to eat and be grateful to people or leave the meal and starve. 

eggs, bacon and toast

    Nowadays, British people have a lot of possibilities of things to eat when they are having their breakfast. "Full breakfast" is the term used to describe this meal today. It can be composed of fruits, fruits juice, cereals, meat, eggs, alcoholic drinks or coffee or tea or milk, pancakes, porridge, potatoes, muffins... 

    Usually people have a quick breakfast during the week, a bowl of cereals or biscuits and milk or coffee and a real "full breakfast" during the week end with bacon and eggs for example. However, it is more and more difficult to afford a real full breakfast every day or week end because meat and other things are quite expensive. 

video of the preparation of a full English breakfast

British Breakfast: Practice

     As I am living with British people, checking if the practice was the same than the theory was quite easy.

I investigate into the one aspect of British breakfast which is very famous in my floor in Newman house (on campus) and also a mystery for French people: Beans on Toast.

     The first week I arrived at Roehampton University, I was so surprised by British food. So different from French one... But one particular thing that "chocked" me was the meal that British people especially students have for breakfast or lunch: Beans on Toast. To me, that was/is one of the strangest thing I have seen here. In France we have backed beans with tomato sauce BUT we eat them with meat in a plate as an entire "vegetable". We don't eat beans alone with toasts. But in the UK, it is a very famous and loved dish maybe because it is very easy to make and quite cheap. 

We can read more and more scenes in the literature about beans on toasts. For example, Beans on Toast by Dowling P. for children about the story of the beans and their journey to go to children's plate. 

SCOOP: The real preparation of beans on toast by British students:

Step 1: Put the toast, only one is good but two pieces of toast are better, in the toaster for 3 minutes. 

By the way, two very very very important household appliances in a British kitchen where students live must be the toaster and the kettle.

Step 2: Take the best can of baked beans that you find in your cupboard. Open it carefully.

The most difficult step in the preparation, is to find a clean bowl to pour the beans inside. If you cannot find a clean one and you are too lazy to wash one, take something else that can replace the bowl, such as a Tupperware(see the picture).

         Everything must be in the "bowl"! No beans left in the can to make a proper job.

Put the beans in the third more important element of a British kitchen for students: the microwave! 

Step 3: No time wasted, as your beans are away for a while and as your toasts are ready and feel alone on the toaster, take them in a clean plate (if difficulties to find a clean plate, see step 2). Take your butter and put it on your hot toast. In doing so, the butter will be melt and your toast, not dried.

Step 4:  Your beans are ready in the microwave. Take and pour them on the toasts. Try to separate the beans equitably on both pieces of toast.

Step 5: Eat and enjoy the popular beans on toasts. You must take quite a lot of beans on the piece of toast.

Part of the experience, I have tried the beans on toast for this blog.

Result: it is beans on toast I thought it would be better than that but it is all right... 
This dish is so popular that during my holidays in Spain I saw in a restaurant they served them... 

French Breakfast: Theory

       In opposition to Full British breakfast, French one is called "continental breakfast": usually a cup of coffee or tea or chocolate with some bread and cheese or meat. French breakfast is quite different from the English one. As described in the book by Maugham Three Fat Women of Antibes, "In front of Beatrice was a plate of croissants and a plate of butter, a pot of strawberry jam, coffee and a jug of cream. Beatrice was spreading butter thick cream over all."

     In the 18th century, breakfast was more substantial with meat, eggs, fruits, cheese, bread, butter or paté. However, it was quite expensive so more often eaten by rich upper-middle class people. The poorest people had for breakfast some soup with bread for example. However, breakfast was often neglected in poor class people. 

      In the 19th in France, coffee was more introduced to people, before that it was considered as a medicine for its energetic properties. Almost everyone from this point had a cup of coffee for breakfast. However, another way to drink coffee was and still is with some milk with it, Parisians call it café au lait.  Breakfast was still expensive and people who cannot pay for fruits or butter usually just ate bread with their coffee. 

     Usually, the difference between the full English breakfast and the continental one is the flaviour, the continental one is sweet: hot drinks such as tea or chocolate or sweet coffee (as opposed to strong coffee drunk during the rest of the day), with tartines of Baguette with butter and jam or marmalade or chocolate or biscuits and orange juice or other fruits juice during the week when people do not have the time to have a big breakfast. During the week end or holiday, pastries (croissant, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin, madeleine...) may be added to standard breakfast. Sometimes, people also add a yogurt or some cereals like muesli or fruits or brioche instead of baguette.  Another French element for breakfast might be the use of the bowl instead of the cup as English people would prefer. 

     We can read in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book the recipes of the strawberry jam and of the croissant which is quite difficult to make (p.268-269): 

Croissants: 

"Heat 1/2 cup milk. When it is warm mix into it 1 package of compressed yeast. Sift 1 cup flour and mix the yeast to make a sponge. Allow to rise, for about 1/2 hour. Sift 3 cups flour into a large bowl. Put the yeast at the bottom in the centre of the bowl and gradually work in 3 cups milk and the flour. Put aside until it has risen to twice its size. Then place it on a lightly floured board and knead thoroughly until the dough no longer sticks to the hands. Roll out and place 1/4 cup butter, which has been worked with the hands into a square, in the centre, fold the dough from the sides to meet the centre. Roll with the hands into a ball and keep in a cool place for several hours or even for the night. Then roll out again divide into pieces the size of an egg. Roll each one into a cylinder and put aside for 10 minutes. Then very lightly roll them out to 1/3 inch thickness. Roll from one corner, bend into the shape of croissants and put aside for 35 minutes. Place on a lightly buttered baker sheet, paint with pastry brush dipped in slightly beaten eggs mixed with 1 tablespoon water. Bake in preheated 425 degrees oven. " 

French Breakfast: Practice

     During the Easter Break one of my French friend came to visit, the problem was that in London croissants and pains au chocolat are quite expensive compare to France ( £1.50-£2-0.80-1.10 euros) so I could not offer her a "typical" French breakfast. I had to do with the things I have here.. 

Having a French breakfast with English food (sounds impossible right?! But I did it):

The first thing to do when you make a French breakfast is to take every single thing in your cupboard and put it on the table. Even if you just have one biscuit of that or that, the aim is to have the choice of what you are going to eat. As we did not have croissant or other traditional French pastries, we had to do with English biscuits and it was a good way to make my friend try typical English things. We had custard cream biscuits, ginger nuts, Shortbread biscuits, chocolate digestives, toast and cereals.

I know that for English people it might sound weird to have these biscuits for breakfast because they are usually eaten with a cup of tea at teatime.

After putting everything on the table, put some chocolate or coffee in your bowl and pour some milk into it.

You can have it cold or hot. Then if you want it hot put your milk in the microwave before adding some chocolate inside. 3 minutes would be enough!

 Not waste of time during French breakfast too! Your milk is away in the microwave... So pour some orange juice into a glass and toast your toasts 3 minutes, not 2 or 4 minutes!

 As they are still warm, put some butter on them, it will melt and they will be amazing!

Then, put some jam on it with the melt butter it will mix and it will be better! Usually, French people do not have toast except if there is nothing else to eat.. They would rather have fresh bread such as baguette that they would cut in half and put in the toaster. In my opinion it is better but there is no boulangerie (bakery) around so... However, I have to say that toasts in England are so much better than toasts in France but  I think it is because fresh bread is not a tradition here.

Then be a proper French and dip your toast into your chocolate milk! The best thing to do is to dip everything in your milk actually.

Enjoy your English-French breakfast!








At some point in the afternoon having a second breakfast...

As French people cannot help eating French things, we went to a bakery and  had a croissant that we ate with the French way!

     Alice B. Toklas in her book Alice B. Toklas Cook Book broke the myth saying that croissant "are a typically French bread, though they were created in Austria." ... However, they are part of French culture and traditions with the pain au chocolat if you ask them they would say that croissant is French and that they are also part of the typical breakfast as Toklas says "usual coffee and rolls or croissants with butter, jam, marmalade or jelly. Croissants are delicious accompaniment to breakfast or to tea" (p.269).

Breakfast and children

      Breakfast may be the favourite meal of the children because they can eat what they want and  even better they can eat sweet things... Well it depends where they live as we saw earlier in this blog. Parents had to be told that breakfast was an entire and very important meal because it is the first of the day and it is the one which brings what the child needs for the rest of the day.

    Teachers and middle class people in the 19th-20th century tried to make breakfast  more important by introducing it at school for poor children with a free breakfast of bread and jam with cocoa and milk.

     When I went to the Imperial War Museum in London, I read some things about children and breakfast. Lots of information given by Ministry of food during and after the Second World War such as menus and nutrition information about them. The menus were often divided by ages.

Before 5 years old: type of menu for a week: 

1rst day: porridge (medium oatmeal, water and salt), fried bacon, toast and milk.

2nd day: Groats (cream and water), creamed fish and rusk and milk.

3rd day: rusks (stale bread with vegetable yeast and water) and milk, eggs and toasted breadcrumbs.

4th day: wheatmeal, lightly boiled eggs and milk.

5th day: porridge and toast bacon with milk.

6th day: wheatmeal with milk and eggs.

7th day: rusks milk and coddled eggs, toasted breadcrumbs. 

5 to 12 year-old children: 

Porridge, milk, eggs, toasts and butter with cocoa.

Wheatmeal with milk and bacon and mashed potato. 

Potato fish cake with rusks and butter with cocoa.

Wheatmeal, scrambled dried eggs, potato, bacon and fried bread with milk.

     Children's Literature is full of Breakfast scenes especially when the story happens in a boarding school. Even if we do not have a full description of the different scenes, breakfast is mentioned more often than the rest of the meals. Books such as Malory Towers by Bhyton (1946) or Hetty Feather by Wilson J (2009) play with breakfasts. We had an example in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K Rowling (1997).

Now let's have some fun and try to make a Harry Potter's breakfast!
Scene: You are with Harry Potter and suddenly Fred, George and Ron come to help you  to escape from the  horrible Dursley house with a magical muggle car. After this little adventure, you are hungry and Mrs Weasley makes you a delicious hot breakfast with at least 9 sausages for you and Harry Potter.. (from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) Want to try? Well now find the Mrs Weasley who will make you this recipe: 


 Breakfast Casserole with Turkey Sausage, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes

Ingredients
Olive-oil cooking spray
14 ounce(s) spicy turkey sausage, casings removed
3/4 pound(s) mixed mushrooms (such as cremini, shiitake, and oyster), trimmed and sliced
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 small onion, diced
8 slice(s) (large) bread (4 whole wheat, 4 hearty white), cut into 1-inch cubes
5 ounce(s) low-fat Jarlsberg cheese, finely grated (1 1/2 cups)
NaN mls grape tomatoes, halved
5 large eggs
5 large egg whites
NaN mls low-fat milk

Directions

Coat a medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add sausage and brown, breaking up with a wooden spoon as meat cooks, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a plate. Set aside.

Add mushrooms to skillet and cook over medium-high heat until they begin to brown, about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Add onion, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft and mushrooms are well browned, about 4 more minutes. Set mixture aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, toss bread, cheese, tomatoes, reserved sausage, and reserved mushrooms and onions. Coat a 9- by 13-inch casserole dish with cooking spray and spread mixture in an even layer in dish. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and egg whites. Whisk in milk and pour over bread mixture. Cover dish with aluminum foil and let casserole sit for 10 minutes. Press foil down gently to ensure top layer of bread cubes soaks up liquid.

Bake casserole for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes more. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

source

     Books in Children's literature often try to educate the child with breakfast. The example of Let's eat Breakfast by Hibbert C. explains to the children some basic elements such as where chocolate comes from with lot of pictures that describes breakfast time. First elements described are porridge, meat, cheese and hot drinks and then the author introduces breakfast that can be eaten in the rest of the world such as in China or South America. Or another example in Golden Books published by Simon and Schuster firstly in 1942. It is a collection of stories for children and one of them is entitled Bobby the Dog. Bobby is a French dog who eats cheese and croissants and who drinks coffee and red wine. Here is a particular scene illustrated by Pierre Probst in 1967. 

Breakfast and Habits

     Everyone is of course different but when we wake up one of the first things we do after going to the toilets, may be having a cup of coffee with or without biscuits. However, sometimes things in life happen and put us off our food. We are so nervous about an exam for example that we just cannot eat a single biscuit. I experienced that when I had to pass the exam for the driving licence. I remember I was so nervous about it that I could not have my breakfast even a glass of orange juice even if I really like breakfast... I also remember a scene in Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s Stone by J.K Rolling (1997) just before the Quidditch Cup when Harry and Hermione are in the Great Hall having breakfast. But Harry cannot eat anything as we can read in the little dialogue (p.135; chapter Eleven): 

'You've got t eat some breakfast'

'I don't want anything' 

'Just a bit of toast,' wheedled Hermione.

'I'm not hungry' 

Harry felt terrible. In an hour's time he'd be walking on to the pitch. 

'Harry, you need your strength,' said Seamus Finnigan. 'Seekers are always the ones who get noddled by the other teams.' 

'Thanks, Seamus' said Harry, watching Seamus pile ketchup on his sausages. 

     So yes, a good breakfast provides the nutrients that people need to start a day. For example, nutritionists have proved that a child who has a good breakfast does better at school than a child who has not because it increases the attention span and boosts the energy. And when we have an important exam maybe the best thing to do it not having an important breakfast as usual but maybe just having a cup of coffee and maybe a croissant if you are French or if you are English maybe just a small piece of toast with some butter? Because indeed, it is important to eat before an exam because it may increase your performance on the test. 

    When life is sweet and easier without exams or important things to do, we can see that sometimes habits appear in our everyday life when we are having breakfast. People would have it alone or before the children go to school during the week and around the same hours (7-9) and with their family in the week end later (9-10). Some people would prefer reading newspapers or watching television or just having a quiet breakfast to awaken little by little. French people like having their breakfast at home rather than out, before or after the shower, as long as they can awaken quietly and slowly. It is not a myth, French people are often grumpy in the morning...SCOOP: here is the real representation of French people in the morning (French advert for chicory coffee). However, some other people need to rush in the morning so they just have a piece of toast or a coffee in their car... 

    An example of that in literature with the Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien (1937), Bilbo likes having tow breakfasts a day and 'smokes a pipe of tabacco sitting confortably outside by his own round, bright green , front door.' 

    But sometimes, especially on Mondays nothing goes as we want... Pink Panther would agree with that... This will be a perfect day!

Parting Gift

       As a conclusion I wanted to say some words about the blog and its creation. 

To be honest, it was the first time that I had to create a blog. When the professor said you will be evaluated on a blog and the relation between food and literature on a particular topic, I have to say that I was quite scared. Indeed, But finally, I found a topic which I found interesting because of the cultural dimension as I am French living in London with British people. I really had fun making it because in fact for some article I found myself like a detective trying to discover English traditions for breakfast. The other funny thing is that by writing this blog, I had a little argument with British people of my flat about bread. According to them, toast is bread however, according to me, toast and bread are two different things because indeed, I consider bread, fresh one such as baguette. It was very interesting to see and understand that and we conclude that we did not have the same representation of bread because of the different culture and traditions we live in. 

       I have also tried to relate breakfast with different scene in literature that I like and thought they were interesting in this particular topic. 


Here is the list of the books I used in this blog: 

-Tolkien J.R.R, The Hobbit (1937), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Anv edition (September 21, 2007)

- Levin C. and Perley W.(2002), The Good Enough to Eat Breakfast Cookbook. Grand Central Publishing.

- Beeton I, Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861),  Oxford University Press, USA; Abridged edition (August 1, 2008)

- Read J. Manson M., The Great British Breakfast (1981), Michael Joseph Ltd; 1st Ed. edition (June 22, 1981)

-Acton E., Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845), Southover Press (August 1, 2002). 

- Bronte C., Jane Eyre (1847), Readable Classics (October 19, 2009)

- Somerset Maugham W., Three Fat Women of Antibes (1933), Penguin Classics (September 1, 1992)

- Toklas A. B., The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book (1954), Harper Perennial (August 10, 2010)

- Rolling J.K, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Scholastic Paperbacks (September 1, 2000)

- Hibbert C, Let's eat Breakfast (2011), Evans Brothers (November 30, 2011)

- Probst P., 'Bobby the Dog' in A Little Golden Book (unknown), Golden Press (January 1, 1961)

- Rolling J.K, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), Scholastic Paperbacks; 1st edition (September 8, 1999)

- Prevert J., 'Déjeuner du Matin', La Cinquieme Saison (unknown), Gallimard (2000)

    To conclude, I would like to share Jacques Prevert's poem Dejeuner du Matin (Breakfast) that I really like because the rhythm is very slow and it is very French the way the persona behaves.  

"Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse

Il a mis le lait

Dans la tasse de café

Il a mis le sucre

Dans le café au lait

Avec la petite cuiller

Il a tourné

Il a bu le café au lait

Et il a reposé la tasse

Sans me parler

Il a allumé

Une cigarette

Il a fait des ronds

Avec la fumée

Il a mis les cendres

Dans le cendrier

Sans me parler

Sans me regarder

Il s'est levé

Il a mis

Son chapeau sur sa tête

Il a mis son manteau de pluie

Parce qu'il pleuvait

Et il est parti

Sous la pluie

Sans une parole

Sans me regarder

Et moi j'ai pris

Ma tête dans ma main

Et j'ai pleuré."

Translation

He poured the coffee

Into the cup

He poured the milk

Into the cup of coffee

He added the sugar 

To the coffee and milk

He stirred it

With a teaspoon

He drank the coffee

And put back the cup

Without speaking to me

He lit a cigarette

He blew some rings

With the smoke

He flicked the ashes 

Into the ashtray

Without speaking to me

Without looking at me

He got up

He put his hat

On his head

He put on 

His raincoat

Because it was raining

He went out 

Into the rain

Without a word

Without looking at me

And I

I took my head

In my hands

And I wept.