The Sinister Art Of Listening In On Other People's Conversations

These mothers measuring their children,
ticking off achievements and hindrances,
the hard currency of this motherhood business,
bartering individual brilliance.

Then the strange tale of the child
who could walk to school alone -
"how grown up he's become!" -
but I never did find out why

one said that under no circumstances -
and here the others nodded agreement -
under no circumstances could he be allowed
to walk back.

As they leave I'm left
to plot my own story of a boy
still waiting, older now but still
puzzled, at the school gates.