Tea at Harrods

Tea at Harrods - Dan Buell (August 2025)

Steam ascended about her

like the afterthought of a dream not yet dismissed.

The afternoon contracted to the circumference

of a porcelain rim—

and she engaged it with deliberate slowness,

as if discerning the grammar of stillness.

Each sip, an unhurried theorem;

each breath, a postulate

proving the necessity of her own quiet.