Page 8 - Poems

Line 4:

ONE DAY THERE WILL BE

A ll ours for the taking, you’d loved to declaim –

randomly – across Bruges, Liège, Dhaka,
Aarhus and Paris, though nothing was,
nothing, that sullen-as-teen Tuesday
noon in June ’02. Not cabs, not cabbies
unheeding, not buses, nor traffic lights, not
the now-raging-now-pensive skies, no, not even
senescent pigeons pursuing crawling delights
on the sidewalks of Rue de Clignancourt
where we dissolved with all material
woes and joys, too sodden even to spell
or summon the chosen destination. Line 4,
we chanted in silent unison, struggling to salvage
mobile, corporeal selves that could stumble
and skitter down those heartless flights All ours for the taking, wildly you did proclaim
of stairs, could flee into the gullet of Château once we’d made it—blithely, incredibly, made
Rouge: Hansel and Gretel seeking an ancient, it, flanked by a ragtag battalion: dyspeptic satchels,
unsavoury gingerbread castle, deserted now a valiant, prehistoric trunk, various amoebic
by its resident witch, once acclaimed. bundles (beginning to sprout pseudopodia
and cilia), oh, and a battered laptop case
that was not to survive the subterranean
joyride, spilling electronic innards somewhere
near Barbès-Rochechouart seconds before fortune-
tellers, dreadlocked cellists, blue-rose-vendors split
open the doors. Blithely, incredibly were we
spared the serenade of curses by fellow-
travellers at Gare du Nord, Gare de l’Est, even
Les Halles, despite our invasion of every square
inch of floor and space. Compassion, you claimed,
though fear of contagion was the saviour—fear
of such exultant, febrile fatigue as ours, with eyes
mindless of the tungsten, unspellable edict
of urban commutes (Thou shalt not meet
thine underground-neighbour’s gaze, nor speak
to him/her/their canine or child, nor, for any earthly
reason, smile): yes, it was our manic laughter
that kept well-earned invectives at bay
in the Paris I’d grown to wear as second
skin, the one you – fresh from vernal, Nordic
sense of community – tried to disclaim.

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