literature

those burning nights in paris

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Mercury-the-Queen's avatar
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Literature Text

if paris is easy, then easy
is the way i like my love.
there are souls folded into cafe corners,
there are lives we'd like to taste and try on.
(whose empty eyes? whose wrists are these?)
and they will beg of you
"oublie moi, chers amis."

and you will forget them.

paris is easy.
i have probed her underbelly,
felt the warm rumble of the coming rain, and
she has shown me her metropolitan drunkards,
stray cats and
women of the night:

the girls who slither through back doors,
barefoot.

(a feather lost floats softly,
kisses the ground and blows away.
"c'est la vie," she croaks,
and in her voice i hear diamonds,
cigarettes,

wine bottles and a hundred
nameless men.)

the wind that snakes between the legs of
the eiffel tower
has whispered wicked words to me,

she has teased the braille on my tongue and i
learned to read the love in a pain au chocolat, le foie gras,
le vin blanc.
i have learned that pastry chefs
are the worst kind of
whore.

paris has been my lover. i have traced
bruises like the eiffel tower
on my faded stomach.
She has loved me when the nights were cold
and my bed was shared with monsters,
when blankets were torn and sweaty
and the body in my bed was
jealous and biting and angry.

i have lived and loved in paris.
on moonless nights i have woken up
half-crazed,
groped for her shape
with splaying fingers, and i
have fallen back against the sweat-soaked sheets,
the dry of the catacombs settling swiftly in my lungs...
I've been inactive, I'll admit it. Paris is one of the few things that inspires me no matter how uninspired I am. I hope you enjoy this. There will probably be more like it. I have not yet spit out enough of my feelings for this beautiful city...
© 2013 - 2024 Mercury-the-Queen
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herlastvagrance's avatar
the imagery in your vignettes is beautiful, seemingly inconsequential details so skillfully brought to the fore to lend the honesty that is often lacking even in odes to known places. it does much for my already restless longing for a visit to the city.