A RELIC by Mark J. Mitchell

Voici la catastrophe approivoisée

Behold the tamed catastrophe

—Louis Aragon

Front Rouge

A young woman’s sketch, you can see : Graphite’s

tentative—shy, almost, at the fringes

of his beard. The tenderness makes your cringe,

as young love leaps towards you off a white

or once-white page that opens like a hinge

on a broken door. You see her effort—

sculpting his features like someone out of

a book he loved. The hooded eyes above

his inaccurate nose—that’s where the work

lives. She focused her skill there, and her love.

It comes from ancient history—yours, hers,

his. That house is probably as long gone

as he is. You look hard. Put on a song

you all liked once. Pack it up and wonder

when then ended, watching it fade in this dawn.

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Mark J. Mitchell has been a working poet for forty years. His latest full length collection is Roshi:San Francisco published by Norfolk Press. He lives with his wife, the activist, Joan Juster. A small online presence exists https://www.facebook.com/MarkJMitchellwriter/ A primitive web site now exists: https://mark-j-mitchell.square.site/ I sometimes tweet @MarkJMitchellSF