Diana Anhalt

Chambermaid
First
Prize 2007 Poetry
Contest
At Duke’s Hotel in
London I see my
grandmother’s eyes
in your face. You
shuffle down the
corridor. Behind you
trails your
stoop-shouldered
shadow pushing a
broom.
You could have been
born anywhere I
suppose:
Chechnya, Mexico,
Angola, Vietnam,
but like my
grandmother, your
nationality is
Refugee.
And your eyes, like
hers, speak of
capsized boats,
cramped limbs, pitch
stench, midnight
trains,
sunstroke, uniforms,
barbed wire, crusts.
Once you leave
Duke’s — its goose
feather pillows,
polished banisters,
bleached sheets— you
cast your eyes
downward, rake the
sidewalks for
land-mines.