Variations on a Theme of Chardin

like wanting to photograph light itself;

 

not as it falls across an upholstered chair,

a book, a dusty window,

 

but peeled intact off surfaces

as a child floats a faded stamp

tenderly off its scrap of blue paper

 

or as you walk through lone

nectarine evenings

 

the print of his hand still watermarks your spine.