PENDRIFT

C’est la vie qui veut ça

J’aimerais te dire que je te suis fidèle
Mais d’abord je trouve que ça s’rait pas bien
Car vois-tu ce n’est pas vrai
Et autant qu’tu saches
A quoi t’en tenir avec moi
Non jamais je ne t’ai rien promis de tel
Au tout début tu trouvais ça très bien
Maintenant qu’tu l’as oublié
Tu trouves que c’est vache
Mais moi j’vois pas en quoi

J’y peux rien c’est la vie qui veut ça
C’est la vie, ça n’est pas moi
Moi je voudrais bien être autrement
Mais j’vois pas comment

Souviens-toi la première fois à l’hôtel
Tu m’as dit qu’j’étais une petite putain
Alors t’aurais préféré
Que je te le cache
Mais moi je ne vois pas pourquoi
Si tu veux m’garder il faut me prendre telle quelle
Et t’faire à l’idée que j’ai des copains
Moi j’te dis la vérité
Et tout de suite tu te fâches
Il n’y a vraiment pas de quoi

J’y peux rien c’est la vie qui veut ça
C’est la vie, ça n’est pas moi
Moi j’voudrais bien être autrement
Mais j’vois pas comment

(Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier)

2. In vino veritas: villanelle

The fruit rots slowly on the vine:
hard minds lead willing hearts astray.
I wait, and sip the bitter wine.

To face your demons you decline
and all you love you now betray.
The fruit rots slowly on the vine.

With whom you dare not intertwine
you blithely bind your fate in May.
I wait, and sip the bitter wine.

To silent fear both are resigned;
your kindnesses you keep at bay.
The fruit rots slowly on the vine.

Blind to the burden you assign
to girl and boy swept in the fray.
I wait, and sip the bitter wine.

The bitterness may fade with time.
Now I can only look away.
The fruit rots slowly on the vine.
I wait, and sip the bitter wine.

Grace note

It took two men an hour to scale four flights
with such a load, and little space to turn.
At times they e’en were tempted to return
the instrument. Indeed I saw their plight.

The piano that you wanted me to own
so I could play a melody or three
to calm my soul. To let my spirit free.
To ease your mind that I’d not feel alone.

It brought you joy to hear my clumsy art,
to sing along to tunes of bygone years,
reminding you of laughter and of tears.
That gift you gave me came straight from your heart.

You are no longer here to hear me play.
Your note of grace remains with me this day.

for SCD, 14 April 1931-2004

In vino veritas

He cleaves to me yet cleaves our bond
in twining fate to one with whom he dare not intertwine.
The fruit rots slowly on the vine.

Is not that strange, says he, that I
know no one in the world so well as you?
Not chance but choice, I think,
and sip the bitter wine.
Sweet fruit rots slowly ‘pon the vine.

Our boy, our girl: this is for them! they cry
in bursting pride, absolving selves of crime.
Low-hanging fruit rots slowly on the vine.

The bitterness may fade away with time.
I can but wait. I sip the bitter wine.

Adagio

We stood beside the columns in front of the hotel door with our backs to the sea. He drew me close to him and gingerly held up his phone, trying to keep us inside the frame as his finger tapped the camera button. Two flubbed attempts, or was it three? We laughed, and turned our heads to the water.

“I guess we can say goodbye to the walk along the shoreline,” he said.

We wended our way to the parking lot. I threw my bag inside the car, then clambered into the front seat.

Rain had battered the city as we slept, and when we woke the skies were as gray as they had been the day before. A thick layer of mist obscured the distance. From the window, I could see the muddy green of the racetrack across the hotel, and the line of buildings behind it, but not much more. Reception had not deemed us worthy of a seaside view, but no matter—had there been ships on the horizon, they would have remained hidden.

“Check-out time,” he said. “What shall we do?”

“Is La Panne far from here?” I replied. “I’ve heard good things about exploring the sand dunes there.”

And so it was that we found ourselves heading in the direction of that other town along the North sea, some thirty kilometers from where we had spent the night.

Thirty kilometers and not a whit of difference in the weather. Only the rain had let up, turning into a gentle drizzle as we attempted again and again to find a gap in the fence surrounding the patch of
land that looked most like a dune.

Finally we headed in the direction of the sea. I thought it not entirely unreasonable to suggest that part of those famed dunes would end there, and he concurred. A suitable parking spot was found, and we alighted.

We walked hand in hand on the sand. I had forgotten how hard it was to move forward when the grains were dry and loose and shifted gently beneath our feet. When the ground was firm once more I sighed in relief. I rummaged in my bag and tapped on a few buttons; a few
seconds later music wafted through the air.

Though the waves were small, the sea was stormy. No sunlight filtered through the gray clouds; a mist of rain wet our skin. As Barber’s Adagio for strings played, the wind whipped around us as we stood on top of the dune, eyes closed, faces meeting in a kiss. For an instant and an eternity time stopped. Then, fingers intertwined, we walked on without a word.

26 February 2011

(written 01 March 2011)

Not Prévert

He waited for rhymes, the rhymes never came.
They did not show up and come call him by name.
The sun was out shining; the rhymes took a break
to soak up the heat and go sit by the lake.
The rhymes, by the lake, moved around and formed lines
that formed stanzas and poems that spoke of fine wines,
of laughter and sorrow, of chagrin and joy,
of love that can blossom between girl and boy,
of death and of life and of mountain and sea,
of all the world’s wonders, of you and of me.

(22 November 2011)

2012. New year, new rules to live by

1) Start with a presumption of good faith in the other party.
2) Be truthful.
3) Be kind.
4) Be fair.
5) Do not cause unnecessary pain. If pain cannot be avoided, it must be useful, constructive, or in the pursuit of the greater good.
6) Apologize for wrongdoing, and strive not to repeat past errors.
7) When in doubt, ask.
8) Do not condemn.
9) Be generous with praise.
10) Be loving.