Cafeteria Alta
She speaks to no-one
as she sits along the rail
watching the children eat
with a checked gaze
angled slightly down.
As children leave
she walks to their table
with a servile limp
(a slight turning in of her feet)
and wipes it clean.
Any wrapper, she will
sweep into her dust pan.
She wears a plain white frock
and a look of melancholy
or perhaps complacency,
acceptance?
But always (and definitely)
there is an easy smile
peeping from underneath
all else that she wears.