(Matisse)

It’s no season of ease and repose.
As if vase-patterned voices shrill
to leap through floral linen,
Jouy draped about table and walls.

The servant girl, she may remain
busy setting things straight, presiding
over crockery and caraffes.
Or is she merely silhouette? Still,
her fingers grip stiff as if to balance
something far more pressing—
a centerpiece—pansies and celadines,
lemons and less-harsh fruits.

Anchored by a serious stare, even now
her face outgrows the task—
a table flooded but for the wine
through which measured light can greet her,
the tethered crimson of its spinning
where wall becomes an open window.

Outside, the evening’s sigh grows deafened,
opal and spray, the untamed spivey,
apple blossoms shying forward
to shield the sparseness of flower-beds
and the guesthouse that remains left open,
lit for visitors who’ve yet to come.

JEFFREY INGRAM is originally from Morrisville, Pennsylvania. He has taught writing and literature at colleges and universities in Vermont, Utah, and Colorado. He has recently had poems published in Wisconsin Review and The Drexel Online Journal. Currently, he teaches creative writing at Arcadia University. He lives in North Hills, Pennsylvania with his wife, Kim.