The very first day
I started cleaning at Virgil's villa,
I was terrified I'd break the crystal,
scratch the fine oak table
with the vacuum,
or damage the machine itself;
but on that same day, after one long look,
I feared most
being stripped by his daughter.
Virgil had a rough beard
and a bald head wrapped in a bandana.
I thought him a pirate
or a professional wrestler.
She looked like a '20s flapper,
a rosy face - natural skin.
She pointed to a room,
the one I shouldn't clean.
She left me that evening with a taste
stranger than my first fear.
Barry Wallenstein