I'm taking Tea on the Terrace
after Sue Macartney-Snape
with Kitty, Clarissa and Kate.
I'm tete a tete
below the topiary
in a tinkle of china
through the delicate calm of an English afternoon
poured from the Georgian teapot.
In slender chiffons
under straw hats
they cast disdainful glances at noises off:
they are polite
in front of a visitor
who goes hatless in the heat.
They hold the careful languid pose of old money.
It's green diets keep their figures trim
it's green fingers tend their gray coiffeurs
it's green moods stipple their yellow age
among box hedges regimented
like Daddy's infantry at Omdurman.
A thin slice from the chocolate cake
poses on the Royal Doulton
and the strawberry tart's for show against the green
while our Earl Grey scents the terrace.
Beyond their gates, grass threatens to deaden
their brittle diction.
This I may tell in an afternoon's
tete a tete on their estate
with Kitty, Clarissa and Kate.
Maggie Norton
Red Cross & Oxfam