Snake with Ruby Eyes

I’m just a helper...
come and work here
when I can. Nod
at Mrs Blake
of, ‘Don’t address me
by my Christian name!
Where’s respect gone,
these days?’ fame. Grab
her Paisley shawl,
then take her arm.

Opposite her room
is Dorothy’s...
Tentatively, she stands
on the threshold,
fidgeting with a catch
on her bracelet; a snake –
gold, with ruby eyes.
‘May she go down
with us in the lift...
only if it’s supper time,’
she always enquires.

I tell her, ‘Sure thing,
Dorothy. Just
follow the yellow,
brick road!’ I joke.
‘Where have I heard
that before?’ asks
a girl who once knew
all the songs off by heart
from The Wizard of Oz...
what her name was,
and who that bracelet
was from.