Girl Smoking a Galouise in the Rain
Faute De Mieux*

Bernard Henrie

A plump peacock looks down
from a gilt-framed painting
over the bar, the tail spreads
like Rochefoucauld descending
a stairs.

I'm drunk as a Rahv.

Rain streaks the window clean
as a resting tiger.

Along the Rue Madeleine
a girl I know to be naked under
a raincoat lights a Gauloise,
her eyes painted like a Saturn ring.

She'll spend the night in a poem.

Tomorrow I'll clear out, take that job
with the Tribune.

A flic looks in, time to close
this salon of talking parrots who failed
to fly south.

A radio tune, Ja-DA. News and reports
of displaced persons. My name is given,
then yours. The weather forecast says
I've seen the last of you.

*For lack of something better