Here are the photographs of our last meeting.
Frozen time, and all the while the clouds
close to the window chant and recant the chorus,
trying to ad lib the changes written
between an opening act and this final one.
Costumed to exit, I lean a sophist smile
into the lens. Outside the camera’s range:
a bulging suitcase, a Greek phrase book,
The Peloponnesian War.

And here: you turning toward the rim
of the camera; my bitter eye waits
for you to adjust your sarcasm. This
is what was left of the incredible years
(our thoughts communing like kinsmen,
our two stems bending as one).
A curtain speech at a train station cafe,
frozen smiles, and backstage,
a disorderly chorus of clouds.

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by Janice D. Soderling

Winner of a Glimmer Train Short Fiction Competition 2006, and finalist in a Glimmer Train "Family Matters" competition 2007, Janice D. Soderling has been published in online and international print journals. Her work may be accessed at Innisfree, Barefoot Muse, Loch Raven Review, Shit Creek Review, Umbrella, Beloit Poetry Review, Fickle Muses, Smoking Poet, Lucid Rhythms, Apple Valley Review, and Cezanne's Carrot. She lives in a small village in Sweden.

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© 2007 Janice D. Soderling