Comeuppance
Such an outdated term
She flips a switch
and the lights come gently on
Spot lights on the ceiling
A mouth full of pins
Focus pulls
and the room feels a mall
Lit from the inside out
Apart from the slight chill
our two figures glow
There are fifty years between us
and I often wonder
when I see her
Is this a special occasion or not?
She's working under a lamp
My shadow a pole
in two places at once
Standing on the set of scales
for the extra inch
The glass covering the dial
is frosty with age
She's pinning the hem of the trouser leg
Outside the door moths fly
Pine cones line a shelf

I don't like things with fringes
Not any thing, she says
But this
I've worn it to death
She nods to her lapels
A pin drops
and I feel the miniscule powers
of the muscles in my face
leaping at a chance
Let me please get the hat, I say
Just a second, she says
You always want the high impact jobs
The big reveals
She lets go of the trouser leg and it drops
swinging
A millimetre
Perfection
From the floor
Next time we'll do silk, she says
I knew a girl
The same size as you
She wasn't half a fidgeter but you
Always still