"We'll Always Have Paris" -16/10/2008

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“I’ve seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now,
whoever you are waiting for, and if I ever see you again,
I thought.
You belong to me now and all of Paris belongs to me
and I belong to this notebook and this pencil."


-Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast



***


Meet me below Napoleon's star
as it fell.

Meet me
beyond absinthe becoming poisonous
beyond the silences
shattered by emergency sirens
as they sound across the Seine.

Past all these places
this is where you'll find me
where I'm waiting for you
past all these places
in Paris.

Meet me
past the places
where the fires in my eyes
have been stomped out or blanket-smothered
eyes that have seen enough
to scream out your name.

Where nights were over
before they began
where doors were locked
languages butchered in brazen attempts
where the frayed ends of sentences
I left off unfinished...

bit back.

Past all these places
one more meeting space
one place
where second chances really do exist
and there is still the perfect time
still waiting ahead
I’m still waiting
to tell you
how I feel about,

You.

Now meet me at times
when I didn't tell you why-
I wanted you to meet me here,

Meet me there.

Meet me
where me where my intentions
match my resolve
and the air I breathe
and the sky
are the same thing.

Just once
just
one
time
where
this dancing around my feelings
really could be
a dance.

Not this desperate flight from fears
my fears
that this vulnerability
will lead to rejection
the way marijuana
leads to heroine
be my heroin.

Find me
meet me
meet me half way
give me
a key for the front door
and leave me with a light on
inside.

Find me
-here-
changing my mind
for mental-states less confined
to our previous geography.

Find me here
outside those others territorial demarcations
respective previous
That we both needed
to
get
away
from.

Find me here
where I am declaring
and international law means
I get to keep this
courage
through
customs.

Where my words are less confused
confiding
instead of this hiding,
my feeling felt,

For you.

Meet me
-there-
meet me,

In Paris.

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Not really a 'redux' like some other recent entries, but I've made some minor corrections here while migrating it over from the previous my space blog, so now it reads exactly the way it is performed. Definitely one of my flag-ship pieces, I'm glad to finally give it a home here.

(reformatted March 2010 )

-Peace





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