La Musica Nuova

Indeed, she fell in love with that woman
because of the way she wears a dress.
Because of the way she wears the night
on her dress and the dress on her shoulders.
Because the funnel of her fingers when she
smoothes the dress’s sleeves is a faucet
of new music. It is a fine, fat button of pearl,
and she plans to wear it as a long, new life.   

—Susan Davis

Susan Davis’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Antioch Review, Paris Review, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere. She is an editor and producer for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.


Originally published in the February/March 2003 issue of Boston Review