parisweddingpoem #2
in the days after the nuptials why go right home again when there’s the glory of sainte-chapelle the eiffel tower an exclamation point against the sky the cluny’s unicorn the musée of musical instruments’
boggling octobass where you must stand on a ladder to play it then contemplating the effluent of a great city rushing beneath our feet three hours of pungent egouts
we peer down every dim corridor for a glimpse of jean valjean later the endless walls of bone and skulls artfully stacked by eighteenth century workmen who labored by torchlight in the catacombs re-interring millions of bodies from the choked churchyards overhead a stroll through the père-lachaise
where not quite every path leads to jim morrison’s grave and the gendarme paris must
hire to protect it apparently nobody bothered to guard oscar wilde where the naked male on his tombstone has had his kiki whacked off
© Jacqueline Jackson 2006
This article appears in May 18-24, 2006.
