PARIS-AM-SEINE
-Sir have you ever heard of Paris-sur-Seine
I should like to go there for a day-for an hour–
To see once more the house I was hom in
The street I was hom in
The streets I walked on rainy nights
Following my millions of bees
To glean the honey of my dreams
Mister ticket-seller
-Paris-sur-Seine--yes-the name is familiar
A fearful country
A terrible virgin with a headdress of bastilles and domes
Like a silver mantilla
·
My son-I have one--is ten years old
Mter supper he gets excited about it
The past
Centuries past
The ancient times
The drowned buried cities the Pompeys the Queens of Sheba
The old flowers of history
-Mister ticket-seller
I should like to go to Paris-sur-Seine to see once more
The sidewalk heave on the Place de Greve and
The faubourgs sweep along their icefloes of blood and
The suburbs lift up their red belt aQ.d
Saint Genevieve bless the gladioli and
-Shh--not so loud-
Saint Genevieve is dead they say
Sentenced they say
By
the one hundred and forty-ninth special commission
For obscene behavior in a public place
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