1.
she had come out of the womb ready
is what she told the lady in the pantsuit
with the red lipstick
and the inviting smile
out of the womb and into the office, she said
meaning the words all the way out of her mouth
right into the petite little ears
of the lady in the pantsuit
with the red lipstick
and the inviting smile
who picked up her pen and wrote something
and didn't stop with the inviting smile
which made the smile look less inviting
2.
"three weeks is when you stop hoping," said her father
who had a big beard and lots of job experience
three weeks, he said, is when you know
it's time to start again
"where is mother?" she asked herself
but mother was still dead
(these things don't change)
and besides, she was only recalling what she had said
to the lady in the pantsuit about wombs.
she had come out of the womb ready
but was beginning to be less and less sure what for.
she did not apply to another job, but she did by a set of paints
to pass the time.
3.
ten weeks is when a man with a large mouth
and rosy cheeks
and a pantsuit (which everyone just called
a "suit") asked her, "how much is that one going for?"
and she told him two hundred bucks
and he wrote check right on the spot
but she missed the painting once it was gone
when the man came back she had another painting
and then a woman came by, and then another
by the twenty-third week she stopped counting
she always kept one for herself:
a gray little office with perfect corners
and a reflection in the window
of a lady in a pantsuit
with red lipstick
and an inviting smile
4.
when the lady in the pantsuit
with red lipstick
and an inviting smile
finally called her after seventy-four weeks to say
"we have your records on file and would like to
offer you a job"
the lady in the floral dress
with sunburnt arms
and paint on her fingers
giggled a lot and stuck her hand right into a paintbucket
and said, "no thank you, i'm talking to mother now."
