Riehlife Poem of the Day: “Late Self-Portrait by Rembrandt,” by Jane Hirschfield

Late Self-Portrait by Rembrandt
by Jane Hirschfield
from After

The dog, dead for years, keeps coming back in the dream.
We look at each other there with the old joy.
It was always her gift to bring me into the present—
Which sleeps, changes, awakens, dresses, leaves.

Happiness and unhappiness
differ as a bucket hammered from gold differs from one of pressed tin,
this painting proposes.

Each carries the same water, it says.