Vox Populi
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Michael Simms: Portrait of Unknown Couple
He first noticed them because
their backs were to the sea
sitting on the bench facing
the people walking by
He sketched in charcoal
the arch of a shoulder
the movement of a hand
the woman’s head
turned and tilted slightly
toward the man who
looks toward the mountains
behind the artist
Both man and woman are bundled
in heavy coats, a magnificent
sunset behind them but they’ve seen
all this before
the artist thinks maybe
they’ve grown bored
with gaudy sunsets and now
are watching
the more subtle beauty of the land
rising toward the blue
mountains and beyond. The woman
wears a woolen
head scarf, the man
a fisherman’s cap, but
he doesn’t have the hands
of a fisherman
the artist thinks, more the hands of
say an accountant
or teacher, soft yet certain, yes
a couple of retired
teachers the artist presumes. The woman
clutches the scarf
tightly against the wind, a light
spray of the sea
against jagged rocks, birds circling
over the reddening
water behind her. The artist
somehow knows
the couple is the center of
the story, the other
people walking by or standing
at the rail looking out
at the corrasions of weather are merely
suggestions, local
color in a colorless city
estranged from
his attention, the eye
so subtle compared
to a possible sketch, he must make
each line a gesture
of the moment, refined, distilled
twisting in place
as the wind blows across the paper
lifting the birds
on extended wings which then fold
into dives below the paper’s
surface. A plastic cup blown by the wind
catches on a rock and
he captures the distraction with
with a single movement
of the charcoal. The couple
looks settled into
place, belonging by
long habit, the man
with deep lines on his face,
the woman perhaps
younger, squints at him, not gazing,
just a quick
read of his mood. The artist moves
his hand to their shoes
the man’s brogans as they used
to call these thick soled
lace-ups, scratched and scuffed,
still serviceable, but her
shoes are delicately tooled leather
not new
carefully polished
a design of red and black
Spanish perhaps, elegant
and expensive, her gloves
red and black as well perhaps
bought at the same
shop they discovered in Madrid
the artist imagines
their tenderness when
alone, an old couple
in love. The old man’s hands
burrow
into the pockets of his great coat
his affections
disguised, known only
to the woman
who holds his arm in fierce
possession which
he doesn’t seem to mind
at all, comfortable
in the habitual grip of the very
married. Later
the artist washes the scene
in watercolor, a blur
of blue-gray and rust
over the drawing
of the old couples’
habitual comfort together
solving the formal challenge
of the layers of tension
between the subtle intimacy of
the couple almost invisible
among strangers and the crashing waves
spraying spumes into the air
and the wine-blue sea darkening
Michael Simms is the founder and editor of Vox Populi. His most recent collections are American Ash and Nightjar (Ragged Sky, 2020, 2021).
Copyright 2021 Michael Simms. From Nightjar.
Vox Populi 
(…) comfortable
in the c c
Oh my, this hit me as something I have wanted to say /write/describe/photograph for decades! The so true of KB and I: ” comfortable //in the habitual grip of the very //
married.” — and there you have it: you framed it in 9 words!
Damn, you’re good!
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Thank you, Laure-Anne. I see so few poems about the love between old people… I was thinking of how an artist might see Eva and me, but I think the scene is a description of many couples.
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“the artist imagines
their tenderness when
alone, an old couple
in love.”
A beautiful poem, Michael. A love that lasts for decades is a holy thing.
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Thank you, Lisa!
>
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The smooth flow of the poem invites reading in one go. Like especial this part in the three stanzas–“the old couples’ habitual comfort together solving the formal challenge of the layers of tension between the subtle intimacy of the couple almost invisible…”–really nice.
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Thank you, John.
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I’m there.
Storm pending here, out over that wineful
Sea.
Thankyou
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Thanks, Sean!
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Line breaks used so artfully! And then there are the persistent phrases that push through them: “in the habitual grip of the very/married.” Yes!
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Thanks for noticing the craft of the poem, Louise. It may look chaotic on the page, but as you said the phrasing and the movement work together.
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