You too must eat of the honeycomb

One, she bends down

towards her basket of shopping

and comes up two;

adept at nosing aside her tee

he has found her nipple

and is taking his fill

as she hefts his two-year-old

body up against her breast,

unloads, makes conversation –

about honey, how the beekeeper

doesn’t move her hives

as that would stress the bees.

I ring up her groceries,

put them in a bag. All the while

she is leaking, giving,

and I want to reach over,

break another convention,

gently prise them apart, say,

It's time. You've done enough.

(First published by The Sunlight Press, 6 June 2017.)