Yes, Offred, It Is As You Said

 Paris Lost 

—after The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Netflix Series

No one in the family noticed when

one day Midge Maisel’s mother left 

for Paris.  She longed for the small room

where she had learned her French years

before.  Was it still there?  It was.  And

the landlady still remembered her.

So she got a dog, named it Simone, and 

stayed.  Why not?  She had broken with   

her stingy, mysogynist brothers 

who had made her grovel for her inheritance. 

The cheap Paris bedroom, shared bath 

down the hall, had worked before. 

She’d make it work again. 

Her fluent French, still intact, had already 

won back her old friends and she seemed

at home when her oblivious husband 

arrived to take her back. He bought 

a beret and wore it.  Though charmed, 

she couldn’t give up Paris—yet.

But her daughter Midge left her kids

in NYC to join the mission, so Miriam’s recapture

& return were inevitable. Her family tried 

to spin the event as a second honeymoon, 

but all the way to the airport Midge’s mother 

sat in the cab with little Simone on her lap,

watching Paris disappear out the back window. 

And yes, tears streamed down her face.

—Sef, 4/28/ 2025