venedig, 1986

(Venedig, Gerhard RIchter 1986)

briefly i
wondered did
i come here alone? and
if not where
was she?

i looked
for her in
the crowds
in the tall
white
washed   
richter
exhibit
she had insisted
we see

i sought the paintings i thought
she’d like best

i knew
she tended toward        
       reverie

on the train on the way,
she had been sad in
a red sweater.

i parted people i
looked for the red
the thin
legs i went
from room room
room through
big open gallery
maws i stopped
looking ---

the contemplating
crowds contemplating
her
there

she was

the brush of her
red sweater
in the barley field
the foreground /stroke
that was her
expression when she knew
i was looking

for her

that brushstroke was break
ing that blowing reflection red
shore barely there
the blur
into even light onto

her sky her blue eyes beginning
and ending the
world there
was peace there
was a storm the shore
the stabs of brush
the red
sweater smeared
i was lost  in the white
washed
exhibit
she insisted

we see
i left
alone.