Barges on the Seine
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, c. 1869
.
The barges line up like ants carrying sugar,
hardly noticeable on the broad span of river,
the swathe of sky roiling above in white clouds,
and the hedges brooding in foreground left.
.
The miniscule protagonists are practically nil,
forgotten, a mere footnote to the wind, water
and shadows that ignore them as they creep downriver
on their plodding journey carrying who knows what
to who knows where.
.
Their black forms dribble upstream,
merely an inky line, specks of dark life
on a canvas of dense blue, white, and verdure,
just doing their duty, trying not to run aground
in the vast universe that holds them on a string
like unanswered questions.
.
Young Woman Sewing in the Garden
Mary Cassatt c. 1880-82
.
She could be any ordinary woman
engaged in lace-making, perhaps
tatting the edge of a handkerchief,
sitting dully in a shady spot among
a handful of poppy-bright flowers.
.
Intent on her task, she is oblivious
to the verdant shrubbery around her,
summer’s cloud of tepid breath.
She does not dissolve into the scene,
does not become one with the garden,
or filter herself through blossom,
but remains contained within herself.
.
Her plain gray dress closes around her,
leaving bare only her arms, wrists,
and hands free to engage in sewing
the tiny square of fabric that is
her raison d’être, its soft material
gathering her dreams in the task
of the moment.
.
The graveled path behind her
provides a horizontal stripe of dusty beige
through a haze of trees. She could easily
run away from her nearly motionless
existence, but refuses to consider escape,
her delicate labors calling her from the heart,
or not.
.
Donna Pucciani, a Chicago-based writer, has published poetry worldwide in Shi Chao Poetry, Poetry Salzburg, ParisLitUp, Gradiva, Meniscus, Li Poetry, North of Oxford, and other journals, Her seventh and latest book of poetry is EDGES.
.
.
North of Oxford 