Envisioning


A century or so ago, an Italian landscape
architect designed these pebble paths to converge
before circling the fountain so that a man
and a woman might meet. She would approach

from the wide marble steps, he over the length
of lawn. Roses would offer their customary
allegory of petals and thorns, while box hedges
hinted enclosures of fate. Long before the man

and woman were born, their embrace had been
so schemed. Corinthian columns would stand
as subliminal assertions of ruin and rebirth
like the affect of steps leading into water.

How do I know all this is true? Last night I saw
the pair hurrying toward one another.  I heard
her light laugh as he lifted her, a quick twirl,
before they vanished into the words of a poem.