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Ricky Garni

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My (The) Don Quixote

Shortly before my friend L. went to Strasbourg,
I recommended that he read Don Quixote

It is a book about old men, beautiful women,
dirt, mules, dust, old horses, new horses, inns,
death, and misunderstanding.

That was as best as I could summarize for L.,
because I have never read Don Quixote

We were at the train station.
L. was boarding the train.

It was foggy, in the spirit of BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard or

akin to LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON
starring Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper

As the train began to pull away
I called out to L.

You must also see LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON
starring Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper! I cried.

And BRIEF ENCOUNTER starring Trevor Howard
and Celia Johnson although I had never seen

BRIEF ENCOUNTER, directed by David Lean or
LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, directed by Billy Wilder

Please! I pleaded
I beg of you! I lamented, begging

But now he was far away in the distance
I could not see him I could not touch his hand

I could not hear him say Brief when or Love what

I could only see the train, far away
and hear that lonely whistle blowing

And I could only weep, although I do not weep
not for a friend, an L. I may have but don’t,

Not for a Don, who wasn’t but is,
not for love which cannot when it will

But for encounters, but for everything I don’t know
I pay my respects, and bow, my heart, happy,
and with my compliments, until the fog exists,
or lifts

Page(s) 38-39

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