Jeu de Paume, by Janet McMillan Rives

Landscape Near Moret, by Alfred Sisley (France) 1880.

 
​Jeu de Paume
 
Yes, yes, I know this is Tucson,
downtown, the Old Pueblo.
But may I please have one moment,
just one, to pretend.
Let me imagine that it's Paris
the Jeu de Paume museum
my mother at my side
Michelin guide in her right hand
another book in her left,
a history of the impressionists.
As always, she teaches me.
As always, I listen.
 
Janet McMillan Rives

Janet McMillan Rives was born and raised in Connecticut and spent her early adulthood in Tucson, Arizona, her current home.  She retired as professor of economics from the University of Northern Iowa.  Her poetry has appeared in Lyrical Iowa, Sandcutters, The Avocet, Unstrung, The Blue Guitar and in the anthologies Voices from the Plains (I and II) and Facing West.