Nicolaes MAES , 1634 - 1693--Interior with a Sleeping Maid and her Mistress ('The Idle Servant')
Only Human
"Exhibit A," she seems to say,
the woman standing centre.
The light drapes gently about her;
the lax curve of apron
parallels a wry smile.
Her hand gestures, open,
at the exhausted maid.
Head in hand,
the dozing one sits
on a stool
above a hopeless
pile of pots.
Above her sleeping head,
the cat has scaled the sideboard
and now devours a fowl
plucked for someone's feast.
Up three stairs behind
two women gossip softly
to the swell's silhouette.
"This is us," Maes seems to say,
Wasteful, wasted,
gossiping, failed,
neglectful, hopeless, frail.
Gravity and the cat
await our missteps.
But so does the golden light
of a forgiving friend.