Men (second): Ninth German Spy
The Folly
The German Spy
Men (second)
Some speak her language
She hears them on tiptoes
Speak the other side of glass and mesh
A harsh sea agate blue squints and growls at the sun
Of other sights to see none
She wishes they would speak of Agnes
These guardians
Share their gossip, marvel
If there is anything marvellous in her imprisonment
She came to Serna not strongly literate
Knowledge was to her the world away from home
Whatever might be in it
Perhaps in this the moral to the myth
Would you now not trade the world for a map?
Would you learn to speak English…can you do it?
To dos Santos she had frankly said, I barely read and write
He scratched his chin…no? Well, you may be trained
A man and woman came to force the daily drill
One American one British
Don’t sit there stupid, listen
Hours in the locked room
I go, I shall go, I have gone, I went
Why so? Why not?
I learn, I am learning, I will learn, I have learnt
Odd then, to know a foreign alphabet
And not her own
Odd to be free, and a wife (which she has never been)
A lecturer’s wife, young parvenue
Modelling a baroness’s parure
At a charitable afternoon
Charming little thing
Do you mind, dear…where are you from?
Then Lord Atherleigh
She has aimed at him the swirl of her skirt
The nape of her neck
A glance and a pinkening of cheeks
She can manage even that
I pity her, she hears one say
That man
He might be her grandfather
She makes her eyes wide and clear
Do you wonder I’ve been staring at you
So rude, I’m very sorry, but…
Men (second)
Plain and Ugly Terms
(2018, Stephanie Foster)