Michael Rothenberg

 

Excerpts from The Paris Journals
(with an introduction by Joanne Kyger)
published October 2000 by Fish Drum, Inc.
Copyright by Michael Rothenberg.
ISBN: 1-929495-05-6

I   UPON ARRIVAL

May 21, Heathrow—London

Ten years since last in Europe
Headed for Paris
Final destination
Until June 18 to do nothing
But hang, feel my life
Turn
I've come alone, that's okay
Frank Sinatra's dead
I'll do it my way

Maybe from here to Istanbul or Moscow. . .

1:50 pm, Charles De Gaulle—Paris

Momo picks me up
My name scrawled
Black marker on cardboard
Recognize him
From photograph given me
By Galina, Russian friend and former cultural tutor
Walking with him one sunny Montmartre. . .

He takes me on short tour
Long way to his Apartment 25 miles west of Paris

          Where we see

                                Louvre, our biggest art gallery
                                Notre-Dame, you know Hugo
                                Place de la Concorde, Tuileries
                                Of course Eiffel Tower
                                Arc de Triomphe, the no name soldiers
                                Bois de Vincennes
                                Seine, another river but maybe the same
                                In another place, Marne

At apartment 636 on 7th floor talk music
Play Elvira's new work CD
"You woke her up," he says

Laura Fabian, Florent Pagny, Michael Sardou, Patricia Kaas, his favorites
"We don't listen to cabaret in U.S.A.," I say, "except for Bob Dylan"
"This is very strange," he replies

From bedroom window I can't see Paris
But it's there somewhere

                    . . . crazy traffic

         Iris, ginger in plastic buckets, potted plants on sidewalk
         Print stalls on Seine walk
         Italian hand-colored reprints of Redouté's flowers
         Lithographs of ancient city maps
         Postcards of monuments in morning light
         Holiday light, illuminated at night
         Yellowing old nudes, new nudes
         Monographs of fish, insects, mushrooms, cheeses
         Classifications of breads

                                             . . . Great Shops of Europe

         Cartier

                   Hotel where Princess Di stayed that fatal day

         Pity of McDonald's on Champs-Élysées . . .

Bedroom in office
Bookshelf with trophies from auto rally
Six race helmets, steering wheel
Books on Renault, Yamaha, "Grandes Énigmes"
Monaco, Morocco travel books
Model race cars
Posters of motor cycles
Photo of mother dead from diabetes
First they cut one leg then other
No more he tells doctor, "maybe next time you take her head"
And of himself as little boy
Places he's been
islands near Madagascar
Two sailboats in Mediterranean calm, castles in Alps
Pull out lumpy futon bed
Plug in laptop by lacquered driftwood lamp
Pine cones from California in glass on nightstand
Golf Clubs (two sets)
Motorcycle accessories salesman
Sales slips, order forms
Confirmations between burl wood bookends

II   NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP

I go to sleep
Momo wakes me (Where am I?)
We have sushi with girlfriend Mon Petit Chat (Who goes to Paris for sushi?)
Her pretty sister Monica who's crazy, takes young lovers, lived once
On Côte d'Azur, three children, one 28, she's 51, works in market, no money
Divorced, her good husband wasted on unnatural habit of many affairs . . .

III   TIME (WITHOUT) CHANGE

Change in time drugged sleep
Somnambulist act gentlemanly
Smile apologetically
Open doors for ladies
Like I'm gonna fall over
Brain dead
Wipe soy, wasabe, from mouth
Decline dessert
Not understand words they speak
Say little except at last
Declare
Americans
Without philosophy
Tired of trying to fit in

Momo says
Monica never had
American man
She smiles, I half-smile
He declares himself polygamist
Don't know what I am
Mon Petit Chat offers to take me
Someplace tomorrow
Where there's lots of music
Because it's near where she lives
She doesn't work
I accept
On condition I've had enough sleep
Rise whole enough
And in time to
Catch ride into Paris with Momo
On his way into work
It being long walk
From his apartment to Metro
Noisy/Champs RER
Though I could use the exercise but
On a clearheaded day
let's see, I say, this isn't a journey
built on plans

May 21, 1998

IV   5AM

Had lots of sleep but 5AM?
Going somewhere today everyone wants to take me

Somewhere, something about music
But it was in French and they were smiling

While we ate sushi
I agreed not exactly sure of what

Paris half way from New York to Budapest
Convenient if you're thinking of going to Budapest . . .

V   UNTEMPO POSTCARD

                                When I get back home

I'm going to write a bunch of
Up-tempo (happy) songs

                                            get rich. . .

You'd love it here!

May 22, 1998

© by Michael Rothenberg