Saul Bennett
"Easter Eve In Washington Square,"
After The 1926 Aquatint By John Sloan
I
I'm a 1930's movie cabby
dipped in fluid midtown traffic
intense and if alone upfront
unlonely at my wheel
Though my passenger is silent seated
dignified behind me we are one
In a gown length black spring coat
pinched slender at the waist
- not to say unattractively severely! -
beneath halfmoonish gray-pearl cloche
she appears at three or four my mother
II
We slant south toward lowest Fifth
where Sloan drew her at sixteen
(my invention at first sighting
of his drawing not long past her early death)
between two other noir-lit starlets hugging
overflowing cones of flowers underneath
umbrellas past the Arch at Easter Eve
III
Embraced by teeming sidewalks
fleeting anecdotes float toward us
forming strangers who respond with earnest waves
though softer than their slashes
formed to flag our cab
Others in the street appear
to wish to start a conversation
recalling with some passion
unremembered leavings from her past
I speed a little noticing a universal grin
IV
As the crowds begin to break
rote details fill in her story's space
like pink and easy attic insulation
On the weathered leather jotter
of my mind my notes are dense
and fleshy on the flanks
but spare if tender at the center
For Susan Mishler