SOIREE


Off Tremont Street

in Jamesian fashion

you hid Remy de Gourmont

in the yellow book

over the veiled portico

as twin cremona's

played Bach's

"Double Concerto"

gents and ladies

eyed Boston

on the card table

Mrs. Gardiner shined

with the Berenson boy

passionate for Ucello, Vermeer

a Venetian ring

hands in her newest sable

and parodying Edward Lear.


You carried a bundle

of expatriate belle lettres,

wine by your elbow

of cold connoisseurs

enjoying the Japanese china

along the bric-a brac wall

admiring the past Whistler

Firbank's last novella,

Pater's Studies,

and a script of Wilde,

you remember the soirees 

and last November's teas

where you read "Child Harold"

in Byronic company

now it's another Fall to Rome

by way of Greece and then home.