Michelle King lives in England and has written for fun all her life but only just started submitting work for publication. This is her first published poem. To read more of her fiction visit her site. People watching is an excellent use of time for a writer. It takes the work out of character study and makes it fun. Have you seen these two particular women at a Starbucks or a brunch?
Two Women
By Michelle King
Two women, sharing coffee.
Little round table, heads together, fragrant steam curling
around the same face, separated by fifty years.
The set of the jaw, the shape of the nose:
grandmother and granddaughter, perhaps,
or late-bloomed mother and fresh-kept daughter.
Two women, both beautiful.
Worn, but not spoiled, lined face still mobile, yellowed teeth still flashed in smiles
that demonstrate undimmed delight with the world.
Even so, I wonder:
does it unsettle her at all, the young blonde,
to sit opposite her future?
Interesting thought. No It doesn’t bother the younger woman because she doesn’t give in to these thoughts until it happens to her.
I love this scene, so astutely observed and beautifully written.
Very poignant and true.