It was thus the fashion to circulate
around the room, a holding-box for owned art,
in a clockwise arc
To speak in soft tones
with the owner, the owner’s daughter, the curator
in the voluminous beige hat and gloves,
the handler, the event coordinator’s assistant for lighting,
the former students
the melancholy receptionist who writes poetry
the videographer who grins
catlike
without fault, locked behind her camera
in some kind of bliss
They will speak of this later in the biographies
as the midpoint of her lakes-and-cities period
characterized by a Dionysian attitude
prone to outburst, insight
Scenes of life without European influence
While the sky turned that night on its gangrenous hind leg
morose, allowed yet her star
