Hiatus

The threading pattern of the china beads
along the necklace friends have brought me back
from China is disrupted and this leads
me to imagine why, and who lost track.

Instead of long and round alternately,
at one point, I've two round beads wrongly placed
together and I fancy I can see
how this arose. Two girls, best friends, sweet faced,

work side by side at threading beads by hand.
Sometimes, they liven the monotony
by whispering a confidence behind
their hands like schoolgirls at illicit glee,

then work, still giggling spasmodically,
and having lost the rhythm they had had.
Their heads-together break has given me
a necklace with a flaw. And I am glad.

Dorothy Pope