Four in the Afternoon

Poems narrate four afternoon vignettes; each protagonist is older than the one in the previous sketch. As a girl skips rope in 'Game Little Gladys,' she sings a jingle about who she might marry. In a park, ten men appear atop low pedestals. Is one her future? In 'Gardener's Son,' a teen wakes outdoors; thinking about love, he goes about his chores, passing by classical statues and slightly-older women. In 'Princess Printemps,' a spring poem accompanies a somewhat addled princess as an equally silly suitor pursues her. In 'The Aging Balletomane,' a man rocking on a porch looks about him, remembers his youth, and sees an apparition of a woman. She dances. He reaches for her. She disappears.