Hanging Dinner

They are all there - the overweight pock-marked
Burgermiester, the wealthy shopkeeper,
The erudite heiress in pearls twenty in all.
Hovering high- nearly 8 score feet - above the lowly masses
On a majestic yellow crane. They can feel the air wafting
Between their stemware and ,lo ! Are ebullient with pride and
Lofty conversations.

Between their plates of pate de foi gras,
glasses of Chablis, between the
Espresso and the caramel flan,
These guests of the steeples, gazed
Ever so carefully into the eyes of each other
But never, ever down.

Before Relativity

It is not hard to imagine
Albert in a black shabby coat
Appearing to all like a German Chaplin.
He wearing a crumpled old carnation in one lapel
His shoes worn with holes as black as the night.
Fingers in his waistcoat,
Casually thumbing his shaggy moustache
While performing his pantomime of a stalking hunter or
Running against the wind, there would always


And yet, at the end of the day, when costume is put away, and he takes

His meerschaum and takes a long timely puff

The smoke from which lingers at the rafters before drifting outdoors to the

clear elaborate night sky.