New Orleans gave the art world Caroline,
But little could New Orleans know that she
Would satirize her neighbors with her line,
Clear-eyed but free of animosity.

She loved the city and its easy ways,
Its lazy French and Latin elegance,
The “amiable futility” of its days,
Its playful, witty, educated dance.

Her subject matter was the nature of
The men and women who surrounded her.
Her pencil probed their follies, though with love,
So well one could their inmost thoughts infer.

She universalized the meaning of her daily life,
As social critic, artist, teacher, mother, wife.

Copyright (2006) by Arnold Cantor.
All rights reserved.

[Written October 13, 2006.]