Art and poetry on page and stage
13
Rachelle Bijou
On the Way to Montparnasse
Between three-four-and-five-year projections budgets past, budgets present Annual Performance Reviews for people I’d fire in the blink of an eye were I in New York and — the new news — solde de congés whereby everyone must use unused vacation days before the year 2021 is it any wonder I’m wondering why in the world I moved to Paris waiting on a platform in a station of the Métro The train slips in I snap open the doors push down a seat with eyes neither open nor closed In another part of the car some woman’s singing soft Spanish tunes and I’m in the sun at a beach by the shore A man leans dreamily against a pole Last song’s besame mucho Young, with thick brown hair and bright eyes she comes by holding a hat
Rachelle Bijou is a New Yorker who lived and worked in Paris for several years. She the author of The Office Minstrel: Poems, New York and Paris, 1970s to 2010.