Wednesday, April 7, 2021

The Razor's Edge

 W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM AND COCKTAILS

Time to advice curious readers looking over my shoulder

eyeing every line I read, take in, discard, or ponder,


to begin, one can’t read Maugham

without a cocktail near at hand,

preferably a Boulevardier to help the imagination travel along the Seine

hearing the foolish banter of lovers in nearby cafes

open all night for solitary souls lost in waiting,


sit down, watch how precisely each word is said

move between Chicago, London, Paris, and Monaco

poems left in the grasp of short bobbed girls

walking by philosophers lost in meditation, jazz men dressed in blues

passing the night hip to the cadence of hearts,


and in a corner by a dark alley

shadows wait under dim street lamps

smoking cigarettes, listening to raindrops

bouncing off balconies, falling deeper into daydreams.


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