The Moon In The Snake Charmer Of 1907 Poem by Douglas Scotney

Determined not
to have a glossary needed,
I am looking for an Henri Rousseau,
a painting by the French artist
also known as Le Douanier, The Customs Officer,
eighteen forty four to nineteen ten.
It must be signed 'Farouche', Untamed.
You see,
I theorize that the admiring avant-garde,
les arbitres, the arbiters
called him that,
not Le Douanier or Le D.


The hazy full moon
in this morning's low heaven
was the one
in his Le Charmeur de Serpent,
his The Snake Charmer of nineteen seven,
imperfectly reproduced below
and signed 'Henri Julien Rousseau'.