Vendors approaching men with
women, holding out a solo rose, long-stemmed
Stein’s remedy to this condition, petals wheeling
down her rue de Fleurus
Graffiti in the lull between stations, l’heure
de joie sprayed with jugular urgency
A boy of seven, in a porkpie hat, holding the arm
of his brother’s stroller: his hat’s ribbon
The ribbon Elizabeth Taylor (dubbed, muted)
wants for her pencils in Little Women
Toile of curtains shooing pigeons from the sill,
the blowing skirts of shepherdesses
At Christmas, above roasting chestnuts, hand-
written: hot red wine with cinnamon
The O of Piaf’s mouth, strict then relaxed,
waxed with lipstick on a face otherwise naked
Lace of panties and brassieres pinned sensuously
in windows, snow romancing the glass
Matching ballet flats of laughing teenagers, arms
linked, a love new loves will pale against
Vin rouge poured at midday, stricken with sun-
light, for a late-blooming valentine
Soutine’s butchered subjects, laid upon a proper
table: that blood, with silver and candles