Bonnard's Nudes by Raymond Carver

His wife. Forty years he painted her.
Again and again. The nude in the last
painting the same young nude as the first.
His wife.

As he remembered her young.
As she was young.
His wife in her bath. At her dressing
table in front of the mirror. Undressed.

His wife with her hands under her breasts
looking out on the garden.
The sun bestowing warmth and color.

Every living thing in bloom there.
She young and tremulous and most desirable.
When she died, he painted a while longer.

A few landscapes. Then died.
And was put down next to her.
His young wife