Monday, April 23, 2012

Tissot's "Gentleman in a Railway Carriage"






Swaddled in warm, expensive furs


a confident middle-aged man


sits claustrophobically tilted in his carriage.





Rain beats down on his compartment


from an adjacent painting.


The raw blue rain soaking the city


cannot pierce the complacency


of the gentleman in the carriage.





His milky brown eyes


gaze placidly into the gallery.


He disdains the ribald debauchery


of the laughing Dutch paintings


in the next room.





His reserve is unruffled


as students of art press their noses


dangerously close to the invisible alarm.


Does he know he is protected,


or is it just years of cramped solitary confinement


waiting to arrive on time nowhere


that has taught him this calm?







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