Pat Buik
Paris, through Michelle’s Eyes
Many people have thrown themselves off
the Eiffel Tower. She laughs, like coins jingling.
A pregnant woman caught her coat on a spike,
but lived, and had the baby. Champs Elysee.
The man, who invented the gas lamps to light
the Champs Elysee, was murdered in the only bit
he’d left dark. Another tinkling of money.
Place d’Etoiles. The star is Napoleon’s emblem.
Napoleon and the Sun King, Louis XIV,
are responsible for most of Paris’s buildings.
Look, there’s a demonstration. Many strikes
now, insurance, printers, TV.
And ooh la la, the traffic! Formidable!
Chopin lived in the Place de la Vendome.
Tuileries Gardens had the guillotine.
There’s no police station on the Ile de la Cite,
where Notre Dame, the Bible in stone, stands,
and they don’t make deep blue and purple
windows now. Along the Seine are shops
of live animals. Parisians love cats.
Sacre Coeur, Church of the Martyrs, Mont-
martre, place of the artists. Montparnasse
is fashionable, plenty of snobbism. Paris is based
on money. Watch out for pickpockets.
the Eiffel Tower. She laughs, like coins jingling.
A pregnant woman caught her coat on a spike,
but lived, and had the baby. Champs Elysee.
The man, who invented the gas lamps to light
the Champs Elysee, was murdered in the only bit
he’d left dark. Another tinkling of money.
Place d’Etoiles. The star is Napoleon’s emblem.
Napoleon and the Sun King, Louis XIV,
are responsible for most of Paris’s buildings.
Look, there’s a demonstration. Many strikes
now, insurance, printers, TV.
And ooh la la, the traffic! Formidable!
Chopin lived in the Place de la Vendome.
Tuileries Gardens had the guillotine.
There’s no police station on the Ile de la Cite,
where Notre Dame, the Bible in stone, stands,
and they don’t make deep blue and purple
windows now. Along the Seine are shops
of live animals. Parisians love cats.
Sacre Coeur, Church of the Martyrs, Mont-
martre, place of the artists. Montparnasse
is fashionable, plenty of snobbism. Paris is based
on money. Watch out for pickpockets.
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The