a walk I took with
two French girls north
of here, across Cambridge
and Harvard after a morning
of grey rain, then past
noon the sky half clear,
sun breaking through, air
cool, spring, we walked to
“Mt. Auburn Street” as
Leah asked, “To see The Carpenter Center;
it’s designed by a French architect,”
she wished to see, and ascending
that long, first low elevated ramp
our steps and spirits lifted,
half turning, smiling
talking, looking up and back
then later below under trees
a sunshower we crowded close
the umbrella up, then down
to the Charles River, another
river Aurelie we three, Aurelie
and me and she ascending
the curving Weeks Footbridge,
then at the apex Aurelie walked up
close to me, quietly asking, as
a sculler rowing below our feet
suspended, “What river is this?”
“The Charles, the Charles River.”

Then later back toward the Square
then across Mass. Ave. again,
then winding alongside the brick
wall around the Yard to where
they could catch the No. 1 bus,
the same bus we took after
breakfast; they had “to get back;
we’re leaving today,” Leah said,
and we stood and waited with
others in jackets until
the bus came up tall before
and beside us, and then Leah,
shorter than Aurelie walked
up toward me even closer her
small hand right by my waist,
for me to hold while saying,
“Thanks for showing us around,”
and then they were turning
away and ascending the steps
as we were saying “au revoir”
and I could see them standing
by the half open bus windows
waving and smiling “au revoir.”