Forgotten
Printmakers of the 19th Century
Scent of wet leaves
sharp signpost leavings on
every rock and tree from here
to our rounding of the Women’s Club
anticipation of another stale treat
from the sidewalk bin at Café Muse
sheer ecstasy of your kind
on leash in numbers
enough to banish any thought of
Sir Francis Seymour Haden, not to mention
Adolphe Marie Timothée Beaufrere and
that unabashed vulgarian Louis Legrand
from the soulful clutter in your head.
Edgar Chahine and Paul Gavarni
along with Achille Deveria
are absent from my own
this autumn afternoon
still swimming with the artless
death of my mother
grateful on this end of the leash
to be led back home
in such agreeable silence.
