Parisian Needles

after Alice Rahon's Lluvia en Paris (La rue la nuit la Pluie)

A brolly can keep these dreams out,raise a heartshield for this tired,this poor, this wet of back.Never wanted to see the Sorbonneanyway. Really. Though¿would I be sufficiently blokeishto proffer cakes and ices,pedigreed to the degreethat Maseratis are pedestrian?¿And would that be enoughfor admittance—to admitAquinas was right, that the onlyway up the Great Chainis to fake a place at the top,then jump into the Nine Hells?Breathe, relieve the fear that I'mnoncosmopolitan, can onlypoint out the cracks in white marble.This romance ends without beginning—I'll hook a lock on the Pont des Arts,wish it to be the weightthat plunges this world intothe Seine, sinks itall the way to Mictlan.