st andrews

We were sitting in a café.
At a table under the window were a man and a woman.
She was drinking coffee and
He was reading a newspaper.
There was tension in the way she sat
And I slowly realised she was crying
Her shoulders moved and her head was bowed but there was no sound.
It was as if she was behind an invisible barrier.
On television with the sound turned down.
The man continued to read his paper.
A waitress took the coffee cup away.
The woman looked up and stared at this man,
At his face.
She could not break his poise.
Not even when she kicked him suddenly and violently under the table.
After she had left,
He sighed quietly.
It was the first sound either had made
And I barely caught it,
As I looked away.