To meet his mother for a coffee in the market place:
not the best café; to take in the shops: not the best shops –
a lightweight coat, a pair of shoes, camel gloves.
To have grown up with catalogues, delayed payments,
life as a web of transactions, gratifications.

To dip into the hot malted froth of a cheap cappuccino.
The dutiful son; does he, ahem, convince?
Attentive, yes interested, in this wrecked relationship;
love, like meaning, is a concern with ephemera,
the comestibles and glue of gossip, is in the tut, shh, smirk.
The smear of emotions, like face powder over moisturiser,
in a kiss as the day ends. There is talk of meeting more often.
That is all. But that is not all.