~VALERIE WOHLFELD~

VILLANELLE: WEDDING PORTRAIT

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Against the photographer’s drapes of trompe l’oeil scenes,
Father and Mother stood between Egypt and the Red Sea.
Behind Mother, the promise of quince and cypress trees.

Behind Father, the hidden aloes planted by some queen
are drawn upon the screen.  Beside Mother the ebony
trees painted on the drapes’ trompe l’oeil scenes.

They stand against the gardens of Babylon to convene
their marriage among the false silent sea
and the brushstrokes of cypress trees.

To love the broken gods might be blasphemy.
Before the lost columns and the ivory
inlaid god, against the drapes’ trompe l’oeil scenes,

Mother and Father fit into the scheme:
olives and Zeus and the hot sands of the sea.
Behind Mother, the promise of quince and cypress trees.

Shutter-caught shining stone eyes gleamed
on Olympia: a tower, a statue, a colossus, and Mother’s green
eyes against the drapes’ trompe l’oeil scenes.
Behind Mother, the promise of quince and cypress trees.

© by Valerie Wohlfeld