l'Hermitage

before the city
fixes its face
arranges affairs
and persuasions
before a leather valise
has been carefully shouldered
in randomness

before anyone discerns
the slow car
rising and falling
over the speed bump
a coasting bicycle
passing by

before the sun’s slow arc
brings the provincial beauty

before the cicadas mark
the oppressive heat
with their passion song
the conversations
of the strollers
drift over the stone river bank
in time to the breathy speech of the joggers
and the music blossoming in the young man’s ears
the older couple
discussing where they are headed
pointing in opposed directions

then she is there
in the old house between the new apartment blocks
half its red shutters closed

then her rolling figure almost fills
the ground floor window
while she gazes at the scene before her
her sheer nightgown pulsing
in the morning breeze

her tiny dog
head keeping time
to her bare round arm
a metronome
bringing the first cigarette of this day

she coos her love
to this sleepy black dog
with the aged white muzzle
nodding in her shade
hanging
on her every word