Domestic Helper

Domestic Helper

for Clara Hendrawati

Night after night she has woken alone and watched
the luminous hands crawling to an empty morning.
She wonders what she did, or failed to do,
what sin it was that brought her here to servitude
in the cramped home of mannerless aliens.

In her heart she knows she can escape:
she knows her worth; knows her beauty;
knows she can trade her self-respect and pride
for the false love of pale-eyed, hollow men
with empty hearts and heavy hands.

Sometimes, she thinks, she will pay the price¦
and then some small, still voice deep in her soul
murmurs: "Wait. He is coming. He is nearly here.
and then, content, complete, she closes her brown eyes
and sleeps, innocently and deeply as a child.