It is said that after he was seventy
Ingres returned to the self-portrait
he had painted at twenty-four and he

Wherever I look you are islands
a constellation of flowers breathing on the sea
deep-forested islands mountainous and fragrant

It is nothing new
for horses to be harnessed to hemispheres
it has happened at intervals

It was that other land that we
could believe in for a long time
knowing that it used to be there

Look at you bringing 
Your children up just as formerly 
And look at me back again 

How did someone come at last to the word for patience
and know that it was the right word or patience

The ice again in my sleep it was following someone
   it thought was me in the dark and I recognized its white 
                                                                                            tongue

Wherever I look you are islands
a constellation of flowers breathing on the sea
deep-forested islands mountainous and fragrant

Look at you bringing 
Your children up just as formerly 
And look at me back again 

Wherever I look you are islands
a constellation of flowers breathing on the sea
deep-forested islands mountainous and fragrant