co-worker habits

You prepared coffee with
the precision of a chemist,
and they likened your meticulous
           bean-grinding and milk-steaming
 to all the deliberate  
           cup-turning and kettle-pouring
of a Japanese tea ceremony
(but your shaky hands, and the way in which you
swallowed each sip with somber resistance, were more
like that of a man who kept one bag always packed,
waiting by the front door).