Jacqueline Bartlett
At the Hotel de Ville
Coming through a sunlit square
beneath dusty plane trees
whose shadow is a sprawl on the ground
the bride and groom
- sugar pink in the heat -
melting figures on a bridal cake.
Here are Maman and Papa; several fluttering
sisters done up like pretty butterflies
and brothers, nervous in stiff collars
their big hands restless
without wrenches and spanners.
Now they pose for Etienne
below the tricolour, beneath window-sills
thick with flaming geraniums.
After the wedding
they emerge from the dark
blinking like bats.
Maman Première sniffs; Maman Deuxième
wipes a tear, smiles heroically;
Etienne clucks, shepherds
his brood for posterity.
The Papas, shuffle-footed, relieved
at last, shake hands, breathe out cognac
from under waistcoat buttons
and bridesmaids, pink and shiny as balloons
teeter
on their unaccustomed heels
damp inside pink and shiny frocks.
Page(s) 24-25
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