Poems 1960-2010

“Still Life With Bone China”:
The Widow Baffles Goffman At Tea

Next to the Queen Anne
tea service with lemon
fruit cake & sugar tongs
a casual display
of Dunhill cigarettes
artlessly flung in a
Royal Doulton demitasse.
Coffin nails.
She knows the term
and knows it’s true.
Too smart
to lack irony,
this must be a ploy.