‘High Tea’ by Stephanie Conn

I expected Earl Grey in china cups
and coloured tiers of scones and clotted cream,
a white starched serviette lifted up
and set upon my lap, still crisp and clean.

What I got was lake and sun and sky –
a chequered blanket laid out on the grass,
an undiscovered rapture in your eye,
enough fruit and wine and cheese to last

at least a day and night, enough stars
to plot a course, lying, losing track,
joining dots to see the cross – its power
to guide home sailors, lost, with no way back.

From issue #1: autumn/winter 2015

About the Author
Stephanie Conn is from Northern Ireland. She was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Prize, highly commended in the Mslexia Pamphlet Competition and selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions series. She is a graduate of the MA programme at the Seamus Heaney Centre. Stephanie is a recipient of an Arts Council Career Enhancement Award.