The Green Bowl (2)

                            The meteorologist predicts more gloomy fall weather 
                            but right now it is sunny and the leaves blaze crimsons 
                            and ochres that we can see shining from space. 

I learn about the people who travel across the globe 
to see all thirty-four of Vermeer’s paintings, 
follow the exhibits where, in small alcoves or wide, 
dim rooms, they can examine each brushstroke 
up close, see how the bristled, distilled light still glows 
after hundreds of years—

                           like the cracks in those old green Japanese bowls 
                           where shards are mended with lacquer dusted 
                           in powdered gold— 

it's the shining that makes them beautiful.