Amadeo Modigliani. Nude on a Blue Cushion. 1917. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Ms. Modigliani ransacked her archive in search of a poem we could remember but couldn’t recite. She found this one instead. I won’t forget it now.
After the Rain
After the rain the garden reaches
deeper into its quiet green inwardness.
I want our lives to grow like this,
calmly rooted, with startling bursts of flowers.
Every rosebud is a firm, pulsing nipple
of possibility. I miss you more than ever.