Inspired by crossing Place Saint-Michel this evening.
Café chairs
Legs stretched,
Cigarettes and coffee
Murmur of voices in the shade.
Flip flops
Slide under the table
Where pigeons patrol.
Hands flap lazily
Laughter
Tanned faces
Black hair.
Women with bright headscarves
Sit with pushchairs.
Old men sit in doorways
Sipping coffee
Canes tapping the pavement.
Their dark eyes watch
The casbah and its shifting colours
Beyond the years
And the miles.
Behind their dark glasses
The bobos
Watch their white-headed children
Play with new bicycles
While they sit
In crisp white bermudas
At the café
At the other side
Of the square.

