Settlement

Outside Reims

Cathedral

a woman runs, through pillars

of light. Her car keys

jangle at the hip.

She turns as though late

to meet a friend. Dressed

in late-summer, the colors

of Old-World landscapes

that house halls and

halls of lavender, lilies

and ancestors

of the oldest cultivated wheat.

Behind her, stretch

the necks

of towers and buttresses

so high

even Sauroposeidon

could not reach

the horse chestnuts,

dangling in stone.

Behind her stands

testament upon testament.

She moves

on.