DUNNE BUTTONS UP.

A MAID AND HER MISTRESS IN PARIS IN 1920S

Dunne buttons up
Her mistress’s dress
At the back. Her fingers

Linger over the last buttons.
She looks at the neck,
The shape of the shoulders.

She feels the smoothness of
The buttons between fingers.
She leans forward pretending

To complete the buttoning,
Wanting to kiss the nape of
The neck. She often dreams

Of doing that while leaning
Over her mistress in the bath.
The scent invades her. She looks

Up to see her mistress’s eyes meet
Hers in the dressing table mirror.
She blushes as her fingers fumble,

Her mistress, Hazel, blinks first
And looks away, brushing away
Imaginary hairs from her breast,

Fiddling with the ring on her finger,
Trying to find the right words,
But none comes, just the warm air,

Breath, shallow sighs, the wanting
To clasp her maid Dunne’s hands, to
Bring close, to place lips on skin.

Dunne buttons up and stands back.
The eyes meet in the mirror,
The words failing, the electricity

Between them burning along the
Thin wire of vision, two small planets
Circling each other, almost in collision.