After Vermeer’s A Maid Asleep

To make it right    Vermeer painted    then painted over
this scene    a woman alone at a table    the cloth pushed back
rough folds at the edge    as if    someone    had risen
in haste     abandoning the chair    beside her    a wineglass
nearly empty    just    in her reach    Though she’s been called
idle and drunken    a woman drowsing    you might see
in her gesture    melancholia    Eyelids drawn
she rests    her head   in her hand    Beyond her    a still life
white jug    bowl of fruit     a goblet overturned   Before this
a man stood    in the doorway    a dog lay    on the floor
Perhaps    to exchange    loyalty    for betrayal
Vermeer erased    the dog    and made    of the man
a mirror    framed    by the open door    Pentimento
the word    for a painter’s change    of heart    revision
on canvas    means the same    as remorse    after sin
Were she to rise    a mirror     behind her    the woman
might see    herself    as I did     turning    to rise
from my table    then back as if    into     Vermeer’s scene
It was after   the quarrel    after    you’d had    again
too much    to drink   after    the bottle    did not shatter    though
I’d brought it     down hard    on the table    and the dog
had crept    from the room    to hide    Later    I found
a trace    of what I’d done    bruise on the table    the size
of my thumb    Worrying it    I must have looked    as she does
eyes downcast    my head    on the heel    of my palm    in paint
a story can change    mistakes be    undone   Imagine
Still Life    with Father    and Daughter    a moment so
far back    there’s still time    to take the glass    from your hand
or mine