Tea

by Nadine Cranenburgh

Tea for two can be so very nice
when conversation flows with warmth and ease
steep the stories slowly in the pot
and pour them, hot and sweetened to your taste

When conversation flows with warmth and ease
time trickles by in gentle lapping waves
so you can pour and taste the sweet bouquet
of friendship worn silk-smooth by passing years

Time trickles, by and by, in gentle waves
friends come and go, the world’s still not that small
their passing worn silk-smooth by absent years
shared stories mothballed up for rainy days

When friends come to see me, time gets whirled
right back to the last time we shared a pot
Moths can’t eat our stories after all –
tea for two can be so very nice

Nadine says: This is in response to the ‘T’ prompt on Australian Children’s Poetry. I am at my mum’s place, catching up and drinking tea, so the phrase ‘tea for two’ popped into my head. I’m writing a poem a day as part of the Month of Poetry in January, so thought I ‘d have a go at a new form of poem. A couple of google searches later, I found the pantoum – which has repeated lines, that can be tweaked for subtle shifts in meaning. I’ve also played with words that sound alike but mean different things. Here’s what I ended up with.