A Book or a Cup of Coffee

Even though I long for a new heater, 
I´ve only got small change in my pocket:
jagged pieces of a puzzle,
pieces of sky that don´t fit together...
With a couple of small coins I´ve got just enough
to get to the end of the month.
So, I´ve got to choose between them: a book or a cup of coffee?
A secondhand book
which I feel with my fingers:
how many, before mine,
have touched these pages?
But, to cheat hunger
and lessen the cold, not just for the sake of it,
my stomach needs a cup of coffee.
I don´t stop thinking about the old bookshop,
whether it´s best to have a book or a coffee...
The advantages of a cup of coffee: the passing euphoria,
a sweet bitterness, calories for your gut.
The advantages of a book: to live twice,
because thinking about life is the work of writers.
To be or not to be, I have to choose and aknowledge the harm:
"Give me a glass of wine even if it´s not a mature one".

Beste hogei (Resistencia, 2013)