Staff Nurse New Style

Blue-eyed and bright of face but waning

Into the sere of virginal decay,

I view her as she enters, day by day,

As a sweet sunset almost overpast.

Kindly and calm, patrician to the last,

Superbly falls her gown of sober gray,

And on her chignon's elegant

The plainest cap is somehow touched with caste.

She talks

EN; frowns

At

AC'S name, sighs it at 'poor

GE

ND'S';

Knows that she has exceeding pretty hands;

Speaks Latin with a right accentuation;

And gives at need (as one who understands)Draught, counsel, diagnosis, exhortation.