The House by the Sea

- an empty olive jar, paintbrushes drooping at its side

- a large ginger cat, friendly but precocious

- an acrylic portrait of fishermen watching the tide

- the woman this all belong to, motionless

- her lover, Jane, watching the scene

- steam rising from the tea she cradles

- in the sink, dishes she forgot to clean

- their lidless teapot still full, covered with two silver ladles

- the woman shifts beneath the sheets, the day breaks

- morning kisses and the sound of seagulls, she wakes.