The women in France are getting older
by the minute, Jim.
The French have never been concerned.
Their souls serenely maculate
see the eternal woman
in the flesh. They've learned
that time — jamais perdu —
records her story
forgetting nothing that it always knew.
Catherine Deneuve may have to wait
for her defense.
Time hasn't finished
with her elegance.
Robert E. Wood is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Tech. His film studies include essays on Fosse, DePalma, and Verhoeven, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He is the author of Some Necessary Questions of the Play: A Stage-Centered Analysis of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' (Bucknell University Press, 1994). He has recently returned to writing poetry after a long hiatus. Previous poetry publications include Wind, Southern Humanities Review, and South Carolina Review.