4/08/2007 09:31:00 AM

Montparnasse
2 April 2007

we are pilgrims in paris.
we come to fulfill a promise
("next year in jerusalem!")
together.
we walk in procession
down rue vielle du temple.

arriving (for pilgrims indeed arrive, again and again they arrive)
we are exhorted in the face of death:
"Live Well!"

(he was at home in the arms of his love
knowing and contented.)

his voice, his image
circulates person-to-person among the gathered.
i want to whisper, "body of christ" as the machine passes through my hands.
another shares him with me,
splayed earbuds our connection
as we do this in memory of him.

we are again in flight. together.
in flight from the tomb of memory.
in flight to a proximity that is now one-sided.

with beckett and beauvoir we find baudrillard.
a tree on a slab and a note.
"L'existence n'est pas tout. C'est même la moindre des choses."
the teacher ventriloquist gloats.

flowers. words. uncorked bottle. lit cigarette.
the theatre of death a one man show we stumble to enact together.
tears. backs. adieu.