Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Armchair, by James Toupin

Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Armchair, by Paul Cezanne (France) c. 1890.

Madame Cezanne in a Yellow Armchair
​​
Two faces stare at him:
One half the stiffened mask,
              The other, arch,
That does not need to ask.

He sees what who he is
Has made of what he saw
               In her. Painting
Her tense paints himself raw.

James Toupin

James Toupin, retired general counsel of the US Patent and Trademark Office, now teaches in the law school of American University in Washington, DC. His poetry has appeared or are scheduled to appear in dozens of journals, including Virginia Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Nimrod, Pleiades, garnering a couple of Pushcart nominations. He is also a published translator, of Selected Letters of Alexis de Tocqueville on Politics and Society (University of California Press), and writer on legal topics.