Waiting with Demeter for hand over

I see Demeter first
in Tibshelf services
sipping tepid froth
marooned
by tables and travellers.
She meets
my half-smile.
Small talk
is an anchorless boat.
 
‘Collecting my daughter’
‘Halfway point’
 
Her eyes on the swell
of every question
sail to the sliding door
return, remote
as though rough seas
have blown her
onto fallow land
to mourn
temptation.
 

Julia Usman

longlisted in Paper Swans Press Single Poem Competition 2020
and published in e-book