Amsterdam shone

Amsterdam shone

Amsterdam shone 
in tumbled kaleidoscope squares 
lit by October sun

Canals in curves, concentric
confused with a lattice of lines, for bikes and 
buses, trams


The dark and the light
shadows and bright 
caught in the masters' oils;
women in windows 
with a letter, a jug;
luminous, behind the dun and umber
Van Gogh's Potato Pickers;
on the water dancing 
with cumulus clouds

Amsterdam shone 
in picture-book shots
dolls' house and toy town neatness
gables with hooks 
flowers, flowers, flowers
striking the eye and the ear
women in windows
sex showing live
making voyeurs perhaps of us all? 

The carillon bells with the quarter-hour chimes
must have meted and measured the days 
blacked-out, hidden, Frank family forbidden
lines on the wall
growing ever so tall

Still, her tiptoe attic window
just-a-glimpse, chestnut tree
lit by October sun
in tumbled kaleidoscope squares
as Amsterdam shone 

October 9th 2013, Bournemouth, for Marilyn, Pam and Jude