Les Bains Douches Paris August
The clock
Over the stairs always three to midnight
The music in the entrance
Summertime – Miles Davis trumpet ballad___
Upstairs in the dining room
St. Tropez blondes huddle at a table
Blonde bronzed seeking a rich man___
I not one
I sit at the bar
An old junkie friend
Whines a tale of need
In broken English
In my good ear___
Me
Wondering what I’m doing here
Candida has left me for an Italian
I think
Maybe she’ll come here
Idiot___
I wait and wait and wait___
Corrine gives me drinks
Her smile
So sweet
I wish I could say yes___
I get up to go
My hotel in le Marais
Not far away___
I get up to go
And walks Suzanne___
An Old Paris girlfriend
From 4 years ago
Brunette ex-model
Greyhound thin
Lips sweetest cherries
Unseen a mole on her upper thigh
No change at all
Her smile an Allure
To any man willing to be a victim___
She sees me
I see her
Suzanne
Kisses my cheeks
My dreams of this moment
Kisses on the lips
I tell her, “You haven’t changed.”
Her laugh
“I hear that all the time. Even from the mirror.”
I’m about to ask
Her to come back to my hotel
In the Marais.
Reading my mind she says,
“Je suis lesbian maintenant.”
She joins the table of St. Tropez blondes
Before I can ask
“Can I watch?”
It’s late
It was late 2 hours ago.
Leave the Bains-Douches
My feet weak from drink
Walking in the night
Singing the old Jaynettes song
“Saddest thing in the whole wide world to see your baby with another girl.”
But Suzanne was never my girl
Neither was Candida.