A View From The Window Poem by I.J. Benjamin

i am sitting here, watching a family
with three children eating at
six

they have
round plates
and gentle
faces
and they are smiling, and it looks like
a
happy
place

i keep watching,
the children with sauce
around their mouth,
they are laughing and the
adults
eat
slow
like they are thinking

perhaps, they are
not
happy,
perhaps it's all an act
and
the wife has
bruises under the green
dress

yes,
that is why she is
pale
that is why i can see
she does not look at him
she eats in silence
and her eyes are
sad, she can still
smell his drunken
breath on her
lips

i don't look anymore
i have seen
enough,
i go to bed,
alone but
strangely
content