The Pending Coffee

~~We were in a small coffee shop
Two customers arrive
“Five coffees, two for us; three pending”
They drink two and pay for five.

“What’s a pending coffee?” I ask
“Ah, you wait and see”
Two young girls then arrive
And they pay normally.

A poor man enters the place
And to the waiter he goes.
“If you have any pending coffees”
He says, “May I have one of those?”

This is a type of charity
An idea born in Napoli
Strangers pay for pending coffees
Which the poor then get for free.

So the next time you’re in a coffee shop
Think of the needy and the poor
Order yourself your own coffee
And pay for several more.