MISTRAL'S BALCONY

On a Chilean balcony
in the Thursday dawn
of September
holding onto her verse
Mistral's memory returns
in her luminous reflection
of a numberless poetry
over the trackless lawn
she recites out loud
to a student fan
by full mangroves
who then settles down
to play etudes of Chopin
for her on the grand piano
at an early dawn in slumber
Mistral breaks into a lyric
as a black necked swan
appears in the river below
at the open window's
silk blinds
as the small alley cat purrs
yet eludes us
inside secret shadows
which unwind
from a night of darkness
searching for her milk
on the tall meadow grass.