Because I Said I Would

Here you go, Stacey. This is the little piece I told you about. Just a nosh.

Tea Time

Standing on line at the corner shop,
waiting for a cuppa,
and thinking about toffee bars,
I go back to Granny’s house.

Clink, clink.
Sugar squares fall through time
and land on China patterns.

Tea roses.
Moss roses.
Dusty roses.
Wedding roses.

I slip around the grand furniture,
as she naps
-or pretends to nap.
Shhh!

Clack, clack.
She lets me wear her shoes,
and her hat, and her own Granny’s mink stole.
I am a lady.

We eat cookies and call them biscuits.

I keep my white gloves at her house,
in the bottom drawer of the big chest
she calls a bureau.
I keep them with the pin she calls a cameo
and a Sucrets tin with nine pennies,
a nickel,
and a red button.