A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

by Jerry Ratch

A woman is fishing in the Seine at the far left

of the painting, while time is suspended and light

remains. One man plays a trumpet. A half dozen

people sit or walk under parasols. Couples stroll

and children run or sit or stand beside their

parents. A woman on the lawn is knitting

while she sits with her gentleman. A black dog

sniffs. The tall couple in the right foreground

stroll in perfect and symmetric profile in full Sunday

attire with cane and parasol. She walks her monkey

There is a flower in her hat, and in her gentleman’s lapel

While in the background, a couple is walking away

and a woman caresses her man

as he bends toward her. And on the river that is full

of reflection, white sails, long boats

And in the left foreground, a sportsman or worker

in cap and sleeveless orange shirt, smokes his pipe

looking out at the river, as the sunlight

on the Island of La Grande Jatte

begins to creep up his leg made of dots 

[painting by Seurat; text from JR’s book LIGHT published by O Books.]