The lady in a long fluffy pink coat 

Over a pink roll-neck sweater, 

Was suffering,

She was suffering from invisible anxiety,

Constantly she cranes her neck behind to see

Furtively looking, 

Out through the cafe door

As if waiting for someone, 

Someone, 

She's not too sure she wants to meet.

Tugging gently at the tassel dangling from her coat

She has anxious darting eyes

Mumbling words to herself as she frequently turns

To and fro

Her lips move in mime

Nothing is heard

Nervously picking at a spot on the side of her face,

Her hair is swept back, 

clipped scalp tight

Suddenly whilst she wasn’t watching the door

A woman surreptitiously arrives.

They have similar facial features. 

Is she Miss Pink’s mother?

Mother rummages through Miss Pink’s carrier bags

searching for illicit, ill-conceived purchases,

laying bought goods on the table

In the full and open glare of others.

The young girl’s anxiety heightens,

Head scratching, 

Face pulling

Eyes wide

Then a conscious relief

A clear audible breathful sigh

Mother has found nothing, 

Mother has gained no upper ground

Even other customers are relieved

Miss Pink finishes off her sparkling water

Then affixing a matching pink facemask

They both depart, 

Of course, the mother leads the way,

Surmising the mother's age from this angle

The young girl would possibly be in her mid-thirties 

Looking more closely, she looks in her mid-fifties

Being this mother's daughter has been difficult. 

Are her fears generated by nature or nurture?

Was anxiety developed in her mother's womb?

As Miss Pink's nervous siamese twin