but because she stands in doorways wearing that trepidatious frown,
I have learned to tolerate those small deeds.
Her misfortune intrigues me, to say the very least;
I can sympathize with the odd quiver that tightens her adenoids.
We have all grown familiar with the way
she enters a room - tentatively, suddenly, silently -
or the way that she travels through one,
skittering in sideways as she stays close
to the wall and anxiously avoids the corners.
We know that pizza parlors make her skittish.  We know she despises fire alarms
and would like to enjoy B-grade movies
but doesn’t feel that she is allowed.
Chatterboxes make her cringe;
she harbors empathy for penguins,
standing in huddled packs
day in and day out in the frigid air,
struggling to keep their eggs
from cracking in the cold.