She’s satisfied about her language skills,
her memory is great, and she observes
her fellows well, for she was schooled in drills
of people-watching by her mom. But “nerves”
she may not understand, she learned today.
She knows she’s nervous like her mother, aunts
and cousins; she assumed it was the way
of Jews, but that was cultural romance.

She really doesn’t know what “nervous” means.
Equating it with mythical Type A,
evaluating others through the screens
of adolescent ego and cliche,
she sees she made assumptions long ago.
She thinks it’s time to take some time to know.