O Coffee Cup! My Coffee Cup!

It's been a rough day at the Casselbloggy workspace. I knew this moment would arrive. It was inevitable. There were simply too many cracks and fissures for this relationship - this love affair - to continue successfully. I'm just glad the end didn't result in scalding burns or short-outs.

My beloved Spider-Man coffee mug finally shattered this morning.

Well, "shatter" is too strong a word. It just... broke. As I was pouring my morning dose of wake-up juice, I heard the ceramic splinter, and coffee began to bleed out onto the countertop.

As you can see, the mug hasn't fallen apart yet. But there's a considerable crack running down the inside of the cup. Like the rift that now runs across my heart. Oh, if only it was just the cup that was broken.

My Spidey mug and I have been through so much together. So many late-night cram sessions, writing papers and reading novels. Countless early morning flights of inspiration and determination. Bad writing, good writing, and sometimes just typing. Giving me the fuel I need to begin the day and get through it. Spurring me on to make something of myself, creatively and financially. And of course, staving off the forehead-crushing aches of caffeine withdrawal.

Another coffee cup is already waiting, of course, and it's a good one. Mis Hooz gave me a "Get Fuzzy" mug for my birthday last year, decorated with one of my all-time favorite strips. I've wanted to drink from it, but I just couldn't quit Spider-Man. So my Fuzzy cup just sat, waiting. No tea. No cocoa. No liquor. I didn't want to taint it. Only coffee would be poured into it. But not before its time. That time has finally arrived.

With apologies to Walt Whitman, I've composed an ode to my Spider-Man mug. Farewell, dear friend. Maybe I can still use you for pens and markers. But you will be missed.

O Coffee Cup! my Coffee Cup! our blissful sip is done;
The mug has weather'd every crack, the java we drank is gone;
The trash is near, the end I fear, my forehead all pounding,
While hot brown water the steady drip, the chalice chipped and breaking:
But O brew! brew! brew!
O the sustaining drops of caffeine,
Where on the desk my Coffee Cup lies,
Fallen split and fractured.