Between

(for my daughter)

Composed in a shine of laughing, Monique brings in sacks

of groceries, unloads them, straightens, and stretches her back.

The child was a girl, the girl is a woman; the shift

is subtle and absolute, worn like a gift.

The woman, once girl once child, now is deft in her ease,

is door to the forum, is cutter of keys.

In space that her torque and lift have prefigured and set free

between her mother and her child the woman stands

having emptied her hands.