A little nearer please, away from the
window,
by the yellow tulips on the table,
objects, become professional, smile
—and so we smile as mannequins preen,
pose that never was, but the tulips
are doing just fine, the long-necked tulips,
sinuous in their bell of a vase, project themselves,
bobbing, bending over the polished table.
Hold it. Our obedient faces,
catch of a grinning moment,
are hung out on a branch of silence,
but the tulips are yellow swans now
dipping their heads, floating over
the lake of the polished table.
Thank you. The pose is
complete,
and who looks at these pictures later will see
never again come a little closer,
while the yellow swans
are sailing away on streams
winging off to lakes we did not enter.
