Painting by George Seurat
WAITING FOR SEURAT
waiting for seurat
is not so bad is not
what everybody thinks of
standing in a fish tank
arms akimbo legs too
when the bathers fail to make
the morning’s exercise
forsaken all awash
as I am too
but now
the final holiday draws nigh
some sunday afternoon
the chime has chimed
the branches overhang
the crowd of watchers
& it’s time
to coax the children
back into the car
to leave the dishes
& the soap behind
the other little friends
so soon departed
still we wait for them
we are the walkers
in the park
& if we fall into the lake
a second time
the acrobats will scoop us out
will whisk us home
like children
neither lost nor found
our bodies & our thoughts
like tiny flecks
& little reckoning
the time it takes
to sink or swim
still bug eyed
half alive
the big bowl broken
waiting for seurat
Jerome Rothenberg
Posted over on Poems and Poetics
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