Latticework, by Janet McMillan Rives

Framed in Leaves, photography by Kim McNealy Sosin (USA) 2024

Latticework
 
This is not a tourist’s photo
taken by someone in flashy clothes
 
back turned toward the Seine or the École 
Militaire, the entire tower filling the lens.
 
Only a person at home on a side street
 
would discern intricate metal patterns
through a Paris downpour, water 
 
dripping from velvety leaves 
of an empress tree, la tour half hidden 
 
like memories retrieved from past decades--
 
a walk down Avenue Rapp, dinner 
with a family related to friends back home, 
 
the slimmest connection yet strong enough 
to bridge continents and oceans 
 
robust enough for shared language, 
 
food and culture, in those days when we knew 
how to make one another feel at home.

Janet McMillan Rives

Janet McMillan Rives is a retired economics professor living in Tucson, Arizona, USA. She spent three years in France first as a teenager, then a college student, and finally as a young professor. She continues to travel to France where she enjoys art museums, food, Paris monuments, and speaking French. At home on the desert, she enjoys writing and publishing poetry, gardening, and the company of friends, family, and her dog. Her website is https://janetmrives.com. 

Until her retirement, Kim McNealy Sosin was a professor and department chair of economics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  She is now focused on writing and publishing poetry and photography.  She particularly enjoys travel and sharing her travel experiences in poems and photos. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska, USA with her cat, Allie. Her website is https://kimsosin.com.