For Artists
An old French man behind
round wire glasses guided
young things with his cane
[not quite courtesans] – All
art reduces to thumb-print
or sable stroke – to contact
with surfaces – Contours of
coastline subjects rise as if
his application of oil layers
were laid for cartographers
[but a Ne Pas Toucher label
put his work beyond rule &
trace] & Giovanni slathered
his with weightier gusto – A
slower climb [to Swiss arts]
on St Paul de Vence’s slope
in a bus of rattled parts [not
built stiffened] – pot-holing –
& my pose is berated by his
demand – to Ne bougez pas