Eloise, a Girl on Film

She stands under the gaslight,
A tiny vignette
Coy, concupiscent,
Caught briefly by the roving camera
That lingers a little longer on her,
Acknowledging a fragile beauty.

She is somewhere in the Latin Quarter
In the beating heart of the myth
Somewhere near the Boul’ Mich’
Eighty years or more back
Along the curve of time and space.

I see her smile ambiguously
As if knowing she must soon relinquish
This brief flirtation with the future
With her last voyeur, briefly centre stage
Before the flickering image fades
And I am forced to slip away
To other transient cameos,
Other fleeting masquerades.