And you wore pearls and basic black
I swooned
Like a palm tree
On the Côte d’Azur
Such timeless style
When you moved your hips
I thought: What tragic grace!
Mother would have cherished you
She smoked cigarettes as well
And didn’t care if they would
Kill her
As they did
And I suppose
They will kill you too
You naughty girl! Such wriggling!
Had you forgot
Your battement glissé?
I felt quite Magritte
All bowler hat and clouds
When you recited
“Le bateau ivre”
In Arabic and lace
And bade me compete
At jeu de paume,
Though I never got the knack
Of how to play your hazards
Or lay the chase
What a pair we made!
Paris in the sixties!
The people reeked of
Cheese
And socialism,
And hardly ever bathed
But we never let it bother us
Living as we were
In future’s shadow
Not until the end
And by then
It was too late
Stephen Roberts is a practicing attorney in Manhattan, currently residing in Dutchess County. His poetry has been published in The Cape Rock, Blue Unicorn, Third Wednesday, Poetry Salzburg Review, TRINACRIA, Explosion Proof, Bagazine 5, MagnaPoets, Ocean State Review, Sediments Literary-Arts Journal, félan, and The Tishman Review, among other journals. He has been a finalist in the William Wisdom-William Faulkner Writing Competition for Poetry and a finalist for the Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize.
Appears In
Cagibi Issue 6
