Day 751 of the Daily Poems. Our poet Sue Wallace-Shaddad turns to the sand dunes in Saint-Jacut where a woman lies reading her portal to the unknown.
Lost in the dunes
After Woman Reading in the Reeds, Saint-Jacut
by Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)
The sand is warm, a cradle.
It offers up its golden particles
as a place to rest,
to read a well-loved book.
Marram grass hides her quiet
absorption. She can hear
the whisper of the waves
but her mind has travelled
to other shores. Soon
she’ll snap the tome shut,
shake out her skirt, arrange
her face in a different mould.
She’ll conceal this slim portal
to the unknown, slipping it
into the tattered grey bag
she slings over her shoulder.
She doesn’t know the future,
the rows of injured soldiers
who will pack medical tents
strung along the coast,
fresh convoys arriving daily
from the fighting. The dunes
have not yet been disturbed,
she can still go back.
Sue Wallace-Shaddad
Woman Reading in the Reeds, Saint-Jacut
Edouard Vuillard