New Girl

 

Should the rug be straight or

slanted she wonders and there is

panic in her voice as if all

the ways will be

wrong.  Then there’s a crash and

quick avowal: I did it.  Keep

my pay. Keep my pay

back today. We want to know:

how did you get so frightened, and

by whom.  Put down the

rug no matter how, dishes just

anywhere.  What is your

last name?  Don’t you think

you could like us if

you try?  She stands just slowly

lifting up her face.  Next to the faded

soft rose of her venerable

dress, her hands hang closed on

nothing.  She opens, in the ancient

gesture of acceptance: with primrose

palms she tells us her last

name; she says that she will

try.  We feel that we will make the whole

world over new—this morning.