Paris poems - Laurie Duggan

shirt collars, 4th arrondissement, Paris

Little Journal

by Laurie Duggan

1

From last century, the art

of Henri Laurens: its domestic scale

alive in our moment of ones and zeros

2

Once, in the 5ième, on Avenue Gay-Lussac,

I stayed in a triangular apartment,

balcony adjoining the bathroom,

travelled north through Place Monge,

named for a geometer, its stalls

of onion and garlic, en route

for the International City of Art

3

Metal chimney extensions ascend

a wall by a viaduct, seeking light;

the park below inhabited by empty bottles

4  (July 14)

After a washed out parade

an image of the General

commands blank space

before the Hôtel de Ville

Après midi, the clouds scatter,

commandos drop into the Tuileries

protected by gendarmes

as they fold their chutes