Poetry

Looking at Vermeer

David Chandler

Things keep on happening in Vermeer.

Time passes as we watch.
The more we look, the more it’s clear

the next scene’s waiting to be played

just out of sight—the silver weighed,

the letter set aside, the milk poured out,

darkness descending onto Delft
as colors change
and girls in gold are taken by surprise

at the clavier, perhaps expecting
someone else, not us, to come into the room.