Poetry...
Two Go to Arles ( August ’90 )
(for John Davies)
On the Place de Lamartine
where The Yellow House stood
was a Bar Tabac where,
after nineteen non-stop hours
on the road
in your dodgy car,
we had our photos taken
triumphantly clinking
glasses, puffing
on Gauloises, glad
to be there
all in one piece –
for all we knew
on the selfsame spot
where Vincent painted
his sunflowers
or severed his ear
and further
down the road,
on the site of
The Night Café -
‘where a man could
commit a murder
or go mad’-
was a supermarche
in which, to the mindless
drone of musak
I bought chorizo sausages
to go with the pain
and the six-pack
of biere
we drank by the side
of the Rhone
toasting that Immortal Pair
and arguing over
who should have won
the Oscar:
Douglas or Quinn.
©2003 Alan Perry
|
|
