The couple sit on the wooden bench
at the busy shopping mall.
Young couples, their grandchildren’s age,
parade along swinging designer
shopping bags
and either talk over each other
or stare at their mobile phones.
The couple say nothing.
When you have been married as long
as they have,
what is left to say?
On Christmas Day
their son asks what they bought
each other
for Christmas.
Nothing, they reply.
We don’t need anything.
While their son calls them miserable,
they exchange a glance.
Their unsaid words
hanging in the air between them
like tinsel,
we’ve got each other.