Daphne du Maurier
Curtis Moffat

         One fine morning, in a land of very gentle people, a superb man and woman shouted in the public square: "Friends, I want her to be queen!" "I want to be queen!" She laughed and trembled. He spoke to his friends of revelation, of ordeals terminated. They leaned on each other in ecstasy.

         They were indeed sovereigns for a whole morning, while all the houses were adorned with crimson hangings, and for an entire afternoon, while they made their way toward the palm gardens.

Royalty
Arthur Rimbaud

Montparnasse, Paris, 1937
Josef Breitenbach

In Front of the Tea House Ichiriki on a Snowy Day, 1960
Kiichi Asano

For You

In the furnace of your form my blood flows, in the air of dreaming
you are the weather for aloneness
--a shadow sings in the water's depths for you, to the rhythm of my heart
and in your gaze my eyes are quiet from the music
borne by light's breath
in the sky and in the darkness.

Tonight I gather your form,
the echo of your mouth at the core of a forgotten song
--and I embrace you.

Jaime Saenz