the small woman from the attic sits cross-legged with her pink plastic hair rollers for hours. her life spins like the spool of thread on the sewing machine. she sleeps wearing a flowery morning gown in the room with a flowery wallpaper and a secondhand carpet imitating autumn grass. she boils her lime tree tea and dairy free pasta on the electric boiling ring. she washes her hair with nettle essence shampoo. once a month she goes to the central store to see new dress designs then she reads at midnight group portrait with lady. in a sideboard she hides a pair of perfumed lace gloves the color of the skin. she wears them when the spring wind blows. on a shelf in the kitchen a grated lemon in an egg saucer is slowly getting dry.