Barbara Fisher: Two Poems
On Looking at Ghirlandaio’s Portrait of an Old Man and his Grandson
Yes, the old man’s nose
is the first thing we notice.
Undeniably ugly, it is very large
and covered with warts, cruel contrast
to his grandson’s upturned face
with its flawless skin and golden hair.
But then our perception shifts.
We start to see the old man
as his grandson sees him,
we catch that faint smile
and the tenderness as his hooded eyes
look down on the radiant child
pressed against him.
Both their clothes are the same warm red,
as if to reflect the blood that binds them
and the more we look at them
we know something marvellous
is alive in the work.
Barbara Fisher
Place Dauphine
We found it again in late May,
more a triangle than a square,
where men played boules
on gravel under the plane trees.
The hotel’s still there
but called something else.
It’s clearly gone up in the world.
But this was where we stayed,
where all our friends stayed,
young and…
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