as if it was a normal part of the conversation
not unexpected in May of 1944

Sunset. The restaurant we were in
on the hillside the emphatic suggestion
late one Summer before I was married
shared meals and art talk
background, foreground, linked
in the array of painted panels

while below them are written the names
shared moment between two players
we did not know what to say to each other
challenging the reader to see a different story

painterly background of sound
sound of a string quartet playing Mozart
blue water of the harbor

whose flower strewn hillsides
flow down to the sea

[ prelude] [scene one] [ scene two] [scene three ]