by Ellen Gwin

Give me a tea set that’s incomplete
Let me warm my own water to a bubbling boil
And pour the steaming liquid into cups of my own
Full of Daman Frère’s earl grey bergamot. 

Let the strawberry cream in my silver jug
Act as a buffer between hellish heat
And chipping china plated with gold, 
embroidered with gardenias.

But let me come to you for a sugar bowl and spoon
To remind me that once I lived compartmentalized
But you showed me the sweetness 
of stirring the concoction together