Tuesday, March 1, 2016

A Nameless Anguish


Café de Flora, Paris, 1997 (The author’s regular spot for coffee and ham and
Cheese sandwiches)


One knows that one needs to be needed—
And that this need, is needed to survive:
To survive day and night, especially at night,
Each and every night; even when they say
 “Darling, it’s nothing!”
For one lives by this need… ((as the tireless
voice inside of you, like rattling pebbles
reminds you: it is something!)(if one cannot
find a need, s/he lives under a watery sun…))

When I came back from Paris in 2002, my mother
Who lived down stairs at the time, I thanked
Her for watching my house, I lived upstairs.
She said, “I felt needed!” She was bristling
With fire in her eyes, it was as if she meant:
“The honor is mine!”


#5094/2-28-2016

Note: the Author has been to Paris four times (last time, 2002, first time, 1997).