Triptych of a Woman Standing in an Empty Room
1
The room is
one color.
There is no one here, only
a shoe in one corner,
the tip of a finger
curled up,
a single strand of black hair
caught in the space
between two floorboards.
2
Now we tell her what she is:
too thin,
sallow,
taking up space.
She is not smoking a cigarette
but the residue lingers,
peels back the wallpaper
so it drags back like a ghost.
She is wearing clothes.
She is wearing, specifically,
a navy blue housecoat
and one off-white silk slipper.
She is thinking about
furniture –
how it stands still
and never opens its mouth,
has evolved into something
mouthless, man-made,
entirely functional.
3
The room is
white space around her.
There is no one here,
only dust in the corners,
framed still-life
with a hummingbird and
several cream colored dahlias,
one stray pearl button.