Musée de ton Visage
after the Chagall exhibit I'm almost sure we'll climb
onto the roof and call that florist who delivers anywhere
four still lifes and we're off to our favorite restaurant
three Maillols and I need to sleep in your arms
if you stare at a Matisse for two minutes without blinking
and then look immediately into a Gauguin
a woman with blue hair and a green dress
will smoke cigarettes and eat papaya
the same with the Seurat
and some of the abstract expressionists
if you can catch the elevator Christmas lights
will bloom on all the Jackson Pollacks
I follow you around even at the risk of having
to drum my fingers through all the complaints about your profile
I want to say "hold still" in the sculpture garden
"look up at the skylight" to raise your perfect chin
and when I do wander off to the Sisleys or Cassatts
you come up behind me at the Rothko
and whisper "I'll be the orange if you'll be the yellow"
taking my hand as we leave the building
smiling as the guard looks at you and says
to me "where do you think you're going?"
[first appeared in Field]
