I Like My Coffee at 3 PM on a Saturday
            after Sei Shonagon’s Hateful Things

by Valerie Frost


When you’re about to make a right turn at a red light and the car in front of you is going straight.

When you choose the shortest checkout line and a manager is summoned for a transaction issue.

When you see the blue Working on updates 0% complete don’t turn off your computer screen.

When you go to Starbucks at a random coffee time and there are twenty cars in the drive-thru.

When clothes not labeled “dry-clean only” shrink 10x their original size after you wash them.

When someone spells your name wrong in an email, but your email address is your name.

When an automated phone system says That’s not an option, goodbye after you press 0.

When someone has decent looking hair on a rainy day (curly girl problems).

When you spend over $5 for a cocktail and don’t taste any alcohol in it.

When every new movie release claims to be the best movie of the year.

When the security fingerprint locks you out of your own phone.

People who argue with you over opinions.

Owing money at tax time.

Overdraft fees.

Potholes.


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"I Like My Coffee at 3 PM on a Saturday" was first published in Anser Journal.

Valerie Frost is a Garden State native now living in Central Kentucky. Her poems have appeared in Eastern Iowa Review, Thimble Literary Magazine, and Anti-Heroin Chic, among others.