yellows, greens and blues in tendrils looping
through golden spaces, a large, round
mahogony table in the center of the room,
with a blue cloth on it, with a thin layer
of books in smart bindings, a tea-colored leather
sofa against one wall, against another
a row of four black walnut chairs
with horsehair seats, hung on a third,
between the street windows, a gilt mirror,
and, beneath, a black marble-topped
console table; also, a triangular stand
for china shepherdesses and farm animals;
also, on the walls, various prints
including peasants praying the Angelus,
and a still-life with lemons; a piano
strewn with sheet music for Field’s Nocturnes,
a very tall clock from which on
the quarter hour issues an arresting
set of chimes and a flat figure
of Orpheus chasing a flat figure of Eurydice,
an enormous chandelier,
heavy ochre curtains and an open
fireplace with a white marble mantlepiece
against the chill.
A sumptuous
light mitres each and every
object nouns have shrivelled to a shadow of.
You, however, hypocrite voyeur,
are a spectral inconvenience in
the domestic schedule, (one alarming sickle
of the open-ended parentheses
between dinner-time and bedtime. The entire
ménage is worried for the safety
of the children because every sentence
addressed to you you repeat back
several times with very different
intonations, and your almost grimy
calling-card is hand-written with
milk me sugar in greenish ink.
That could spell the end
of your future presence
in the better houses.
4. Nivôse
To one a smoldering
coal, to the other
a mouthful of ash,
each and every one its own
hunger: pressure
enough to hold
the swell and hum,
the clatter tumbling over
the royal roads a night
or part of a night.
Otherwise
only rehearsed sayings
bunched up under
the teeth, fitful
squeaking as of
pipistrelles under eaves
steeply pitched against
the weight of articulacy
that is the sad
measure of days.
To one
a few true things,
to the other
a few more.
Otherwise
tragedy
and farce
and tragedy.
Without end.
5. Pluviôse
Something she thinks appeals
to the finest structures
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