At the beach a young mother,

after a moment's absent-mindedness,

chases her young son up the line of wet sand

where the bluebottles are drying to harmlessness.
When she reaches him

paddling on the edge of death without concern

she seizes him tight with fear-tangled love.
He is secretly happy for the attention

Yet sullen at her interference in his unknown plans

and stamps his pudgy feet.

Her tyrannical love has happened

a thousand times already

and he knows how to make it again –

just a few short steps, repeated, virtually anywhere.