“When my younger sister came back from France
for the first time she had clothes
and perfume that swept the house
as if she had come upon a stolen treasure all at once.
Her face was a movie
star’s, the thin line
of her eyebrows traced the delicate
script of Europe,
unreadable to us.
She could no longer find words
for common things
and uncommon emotions,
she maintained, were best left
in the original.”