David Olsen

Kidlington, UK

David Olsen's Unfolding Origami won the Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award, and Past Imperfect, his second full-length poetry collection, is new from Cinnamon Press. Poetry chapbooks from US publishers include Exit Wounds, Sailing to Atlantis, New World Elegies, and Greatest Hits. His work has appeared in leading journals and anthologies from seven countries. See www.davidolsenpoetry.net.

Poem Written 28^th March 2020

Woman Descending Stairs

Île Saint-Louis, Paris

~ after Stéphane de Sakutin

Night enfolds

            her solitude

                        in mystery’s cloak.

Descending stone steps

            to the quai, she enters

                       a street lamp’s corona.

Her winter coat’s

            pulled close against

                        the atmosphere’s weight.

Moss besieges cobbles

            on the landing, where

                        a tree grows into shadow.

A second rank of stairs

            declines toward the Seine.

                       Will she reverse and take it?

One wants to create

            a coherent narrative

                        or purpose to the scene,

but none is apparent.

            No one else is in sight;

                        her sole companion’s the night.