a city boy's guide to the south

Welcome, friend, to the ramblings of a southerner by choice.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

The Street Charles DeGaulle Walked On


dans les jardins de mon pere, les lilacs sons floris


I already knew the big wooden sign
cut in strange foreign words
said, 'Children Not Wanted'.

The angry man had,
with his affliction of waving arms,
made me understand French

by saying it louder
each time he yelled.

I got off his precious grass.

Mon ami, would you like to see where i work?
It's just around here on the street Charles DeGaulle walked on.


He was new to this garden,
this oasis of sand
and I had already dug my moats.
So, I followed him

out of the garden
and into the street
all the way to the corner

to the place where strange shadows
grew in musty, cool air,

a big concrete building
with the

drip drip drip
of water.

He talked of his family,

then taught me to sing
his favorite song

in French.

He handed me his wrench
and said go ahead

so i shut off
all the water in Versailles.

3 comments:

Pat Paulk said...

Excellent ending!!

Anonymous said...

damn, this is great!

The Lettershaper said...

Wonderful stuff, ejj...