My Grandmother's Cup

My Grandmother's Cup

I sup slowly from my Grandmother's cup
Winfield ™ (Desert Dawn)
I have a set,
some saved from her collection
I bought the rest,
to make up for her reflection bent
over pancakes griddling
Children skittling in ~~~
tapping toenails under benchmarked seats
Five, with swollen daughter (number six)
Daddy Doodling, somewhere slacking
spending every last dime on racing,
tracking horses instead of kids
On floors worn brittle from pacing
she worried incessantly,
most times necessarily
Her glossy nails plucking nickels from her change purse
Bags of leather recycled in cupboards bare
Worse - tethered to Webers
and milk from the dairy,
a load she carried
over silver hair braided crossing her crown
Somewhere she buried desires deep within her gown
trading them for gossip columns
Liz Taylor and Richard Burton!
(Like she saw them in person)
instead of in magazines that she read from her bed
Maybe she did?
And maybe she sees me supping
coffee from her cup
to make up

LDN