Optic Nerve

The Picnic

19 The Picnic The friends: Willa Cather, Thomas Eakins, Sarah Orne Jewett, Walt Whitman 1. Walt loafed. Tom sat, plotted muscles in a state of relaxation watched the form impress on the grass. Walt found admiration good basked under the sun Tom’s eyes 2. Sarah felt the urge to move the breeze led her on, she said. Always the girl, Willa thought straightening herself up brushing off crumbs curious to see what lay over the next rise. Flat states, her province to Sarah she owed hills 20 3. Willa’s skirt catching on briars her hand freeing Tom wished he had brought his camera caught the two backs working exerting their will upon the mass of the hill and Sarah’s lips returning, flushed with stories of small berries a color he could try for later in oils 4. Walt lazily touched the buttons on his loose-fitting vest gave them names: Teton for the top one rising above his chest; Burial Ground for the middle one mounding above his ribs; and Pittsburgh Button of Rivers drawing the cloth’s 21 curves to a meeting place 5. Under a tree whose roots had tangled, like legs of drowsing young brothers and sisters they lay on their backs savoring a word sharpening a phrase watched elbows of stars touch night draw nearer until it pulled its sheet over their eyes. ...