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Contents | March 2002

In This Issue (Contributors)

More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.
The Atlantic Monthly | March 2002
 
Mary Cassatt: The Letter (1890-1891)

by Joan I. Siegel
 
 .....
 
audioear pictureHear Joan I. Siegel read this poem (in RealAudio)


 All day it is with her like a song
even as she slices a breakfast orange,
brushes her hair,
shuts a window.
She is listening to it
when company calls
and she talks about yesterday's news,
pours tea,
says good-bye at the door.
Then, alone with it finally
in late afternoon,
she puts it on the desk,
arranges it
as though she were putting flowers in a vase.
Then she slips it into the envelope,
seals it with her tongue.

What do you think? Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.
Copyright © 2002 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; March 2002; Mary Cassatt: The Letter (1890-1891); Volume 289, No. 3; 89.
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