my secret garden

my last flat in Paris had a secret garden
it took me weeks to find the entrance
~it was via "l'ecole de rire"
then I could sit and watch
the strange and fanciful t'ai chi classes
with twirly hands, the garden birds and fish,
and see the crocodile of monks disappear
back through their secret door in the garden shed

Paris!

You're not Emma Bovary
so stop mourning your sojourn
in Paris like some lost
civilisation

you're an engineer
not a princess
pay your own way
you don't need "les frais"

A point of this career
is to be able
to afford to travel
when to want to

Anyway, your Paris was
always found around
a cafe table
with your friends

LMC

Talisman to Delormel

Swing around the lion of Belfort

Queue for almond croissants in the sun

Wait for a table in the bistrot des Pingouins

And slip into that old vie Parisienne

Keeping a key to that art deco marvel

Saying hi to Sam Becket in the cimitière

Laughing with the commerçants in the rue du marché

Bonnes adresses in the quartier Daguerre

Vernissages and Sunday flea markets

Meeting friends on the pont des Arts

Picnic parks and pinpoint parking

That key a talisman to my Paris fair