In a restaurant

I hear a mother going over grades

With her daughter

A high schooler

wearing a black fedora

trimmed with a multi-colored band above the rim,

Wire rimmed glasses perched on her nose

And a stuffed animal necklace around her neck.

One ear bud in her ear.

Questions about points and averages

She needs to get that A

She nods and only begins to speak

But the conversation is so fast

No one is listening

It changes

She turns and gets lost in her phone

Moving away from a conversation

She was never having.

At another table

A man tells his eight year old daughter

That she has to set up at the table

He is lost in his paper and

She is laying on the bench

Did he notice her because

She has kicked him

With her foot

She gets up and walks away

Then returns to grab his phone

Trying so hard to engage

A father who is so far away from her 

But right next to her.

Not together

But at a distance

Far apart

What a wonderful day

It would be

If they could laugh together.