Thursday, October 5
FRENCH SENTENCE for Marcelo and Janine My teacher tells me, madame we cannot write that you wept in public more than once. This is not a French sentence. Instead let us write that you were moved to action. For revolutionaries smashed the stone face of the Virgin with the stone face of Saint Denis— the Virgin a lover, finally! On streets, I place my hand inside pocks shot into limestone walls. In bookshops, lithographs burn palaces, carriages, and children. The check-in girl refuses my identification card. Okay. This year I’ve enough nods and stamps that this does not hurt me. For I have left America. I have left America! (Esther Lin)