She was speaking
as the car swerved by lit developments
where families ate through Jeopardy
and yawned through Beverly Hills 90210.
"You know, about Gauguin, his colors
were never the same after Martinique
and Panama with Charles Laval.
Still, he had his son, Emile,
with him in Paris, the other four
with his wife in her home, Holland.
It was mainly the brush strokes
that Gauguin changed, VanGogh and
he not agreeing right up to
the night Vincent cut off his ear.
Yes, Gauguin was there, the two
of them fighting across the
Arles countryside and absinthes
instead of dinner when they
could afford only one or the other.
Those Pont-Aven pieces show his
break with Impressionism, his movetoward the definitive look
inspired by Emile Bernard and
the French Symbolist poets -- "
"Look, a Porsche!"
"Yes."
And pavement spread out beneath
the speeding car like a lonely ribbon,
paying no attention to her voice.