Small Table in Evening Dusk
–after Henri Le Sidaner’s oil on canvas (1921)
the small, round table set
with two possibilities
teacups, thin porcelain, a gold
lidded teapot, raspberry tarts
second possibility two raffia-wrapped
wine bottles, wine flutes, and
crusty rolls pushed against
little table’s edge
the small blue table
silver pitcher beaded in sweat
could have served either possibility
two friends or two lovers
yet the blue raspberry tarts were
pecked over by sparrows
teacups unstained
crystal flutes clean
wine bottles uncorked but stoppered
ripe camellias dangling
their branches reaching over
the canal––the ladder-backed
chairs awaiting bodies other
than their own––twilight
blue spindrift coats everything
Sher A. Schwartz is a retired University of Alaska Southeast-Ketchikan Assistant Professor of Humanities living on a two-hundred-acre historic farm in eastern Oregon. She is currently working on a chapbook, plays old-time fiddle music, plants gardens for pollinators, and trains bird dogs.
