"Je m'ennui de mon pays"

Barcelonette

Mountain air is different
Somehow
Closer to the sun, perhaps
Or the snow that never leaves

Finds me somehow crisper
More acutely outlined

I tend to blossom
Under the watchful nod of gristly Frenchmen

Michel Dallo shrugs
And tells again the story
Of how he climbed Kilimanjaro
In three days
But took only one day to get back down
Because he was tired of eating
Peanut butter

The summer opens me to
Woodchucks and local wine

And Michel Dallo
Goes rock-climbing and laughs with us

At the Fête Texas
I cannot help blushing
When they proudly serve
Barbeque on baguettes
Under a Confederate flag

We toast mint diablos and
Pass around tomme du vallé and camembert

I fall in love quickly
With the shepherds and statesmen, and feel sure that

I will tell my grandchildren
Of the time Michel Dallo
Drove our van so close to the edge of the mountain road
I thought we’d all die
But instead

We lived