THE NEXT TIME WE SAW PARIS
“The next time was the last time.”
One morning we saw de Gaulle
himself in uniform chauffeured
alone in an open Peugeot.
He seemed to dare assassination
as he did near Notre Dame
during the Liberation parade.
On house fronts and doors we noticed
small bronze plaques with names
followed by Victime de Nazis.
We’d read reports that Enfants
des Boches reached 100,000
during the Occupation.
“Horizontal
Collaborators” were shorn bald,
spat upon and marched naked
through the streets.
De Gaulle
pronounced all executed traitors
justly punished.
We focused
on Paris of the postcards: Sacre-
Coeur, the Eiffel Tower,
the Champs-Elysees, the Louvre.
The Folies-Bergere booked sellouts.
The Bateau Mouche was packed.
Lounging by the Seine, a fisherman
propped his rod against
a bench and smoked a Gitanes
as if catching a fish meant
little or nothing at all.