AT THE RESTAURANT

Arriving with map and atlas
with student manners at table
moving in her own direction
Charlotte orders cheese croissants
and waits on a spinach vegetable,
chocolate bonbon confections
and glasses of bourbon
as assigned for two guests
in the back of the restaurant
here upon the Vermont bench
a poet rests by an open window
phrasing his traces of verse
with a shadowed palimpsest
listens to a pianist playing
waltzes and etudes by Chopin
here are many customers
in the March foliage shadows
track their way on skis
making the press notice
as the jet setters are returning
from Paris where she learnt French,
Charlotte arrives from St. Dennis
with a traveler's attachment
from a Cape Cod's resort
already to play indoor tennis
yet chance to seek for a double
to take for her collegiate sport
to keep out of trouble
she calls her uncle
from a dorm at school
to watch her rehearsal
at practice for her new ballet
as the poet awakens
to catch her Swan Lake
knowing his niece will perform it
on ice by her kissing fans
I'm talking to her
about Anais Nin and "The Maquis"
telling her of her Partisan cousin
once a hero in the Resistance
she already has a Montreal partner
for her performance
a Canadian ice hockey star
she met in the lobby
who has a resonance for dance
and will be the double
for her tennis match.