GAIL TIRONE

Chagall Landscape

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Geometry of towns and shapes,

the mythical home scraped

in paint, the immigrant’s loss —

the fleshy cavity never filled.

 

Mystic fiddlers and rabbis,

always a floating woman,

often a chicken or goat.

 

Bearded peddlers and pale refugees

bearing humble brown sacks

of loss. Rabbis lighting

candles in the dark.

 

The fiddler passive, resigned,

who plays quietly and accepts

his fate.

 

The animals — chicken, horse or goat,

existential anchors,

persistent optimists 

impervious to loss.

 

Lush bouquets and breasts

bursting forth with

Byzantine exuberance

of fragrance, fullness and succor.

 

Always a floating woman

often a bride aloft 

in a dreamscape of roses,

and skies full of flying lovers

clasped in eternal embrace —

the antidote for loss.