Poem of the week: Slow Waker by Thom Gunn

‘Oh OK, / if it’s no trouble, / he will have tea’ … Photograph: Moostocker/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Slow Waker

I look at the nephew,
eighteen, across the breakfast.
He had to be called and called.
He smiles, but without
conviction. He will not
have tea, oh OK,
if it’s no trouble,
he will have tea.