Let me sit awhile, here, on your porch.

Let me relax, and recall what it’s like to be still

and present, as if there were no past

 

to shuffle around like so many doctored photos

of meals I once ate, hotels I once slept in,

friends and exes, and others I once loved.

 

Let me rest here awhile, quietly at home

amongst the sleeping teacups & saucers for two –

as if that were my childhood’s doll and my dearest

 

whose chair has just now been abandoned for places unknown.

Let me pour out memory’s delicate brew, savor the downhill view.

Let me imagine this is a memory I once recalled.

 

Berthe Morisot, Doll on a Porch, 1884 private collection, Portland

— viewed in Women Impressionists