Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Ann Cefola

Pointillism: the application of paint in small dots and brush strokes so as to create an effect of blending and luminosity.

Au grand soleil the little girl in white. “Implacable sunlight.” Blurring our vision.
To go forward, she must move through complex shade and closed faces of grownups.
Navigate their solid blacks and grays, canes, parasols, bustles, pipes, fans, flowers.
Eager to learn. What?

Her sunblind mother’s hat like a lampshade. Parasol like a whip.
Fillette’s broad-brimmed hat scoops up rays. Infrared embraces her salmon-colored sash, white anklet and delicate foot. Ultraviolet tempts her with muguets a debutante inhales under acacias.

Letting out a slow exhale from his pipe, the sprawled-out boatman,
scanning the river, the skiff, rowers’ white shirts canting into a silent ‘ho!’
Gray back of a nursemaid, her bonnet and ribbon terrifying as a pupil-less eye.

Near the ultramarine monkey, the terrier sniffs a woman’s spread-open fan.
Parasols point against the sun. A woman hangs
on a man’s neck. Another girl runs free but the little girl can’t see that. Yet.

On this crowded island, the only one to step forward, her small toes extended.
Warm radiant waves talking to her, telling her if she keeps walking,
she will escape the tiny pigments that birthed her.