1.

“The museum is closed.

But you can go in

for free. Profitez-en.

Albert Schweitzer passed on,

but he’s not passé.”

2.

Musicologist

Theologian

Doctor in Gabon

Nobel Prize for Peace

Kindness was his cachet.

3.

“No, you can’t get there

from here go to Colmar

by bus by train

go to Munster

for an Alsatian foray.”

4.

Over the Gare de Colmar

a train etched in glass

bears down on two women

pinned to the tracks.

It’s staged like a ballet:

5.

The hero leaps onto the tracks.

In the next glass panel he paints

the lovely woman he saved,

like Anna Karenina, reversed.

She’s escaped her marital fray.

6.

Later, we arrive in Munster

in hiking pants and packs.

We slink in among

hot-towelled guests

at Hôtel Verte Vallée.

Fifteen grueling miles

flattened. Big hurray

from my left knee. Smiles

are Charlotte’s forte.