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Hank Helman Aug 2015
Chasey calls them the dead mama blues.
There's sadness, she says, mine has a scent to it;
Despair, a shabby **** who mugs me under my covers
On winter days at dawn,
Catatonia, which only a messy bed,a ****,a bag of Cheetos and a boy can cure,
And then way down from there,
Squatting *** close to the ground,
Smoking Gauloises in the dark,
Live the dead mama blues.

The only cure for the dead mama’s, Chasey explains,
Is a blood rare steak and Etta James greatest hits on vinyl,
Played quiet through the sweet spot of the night,
All the lights off, the dishes done and dry.

Helps if a sister has a slim hip man to dance with, she said,
So if you ain’t runnin’, the grill’s on me.
Come by sober any time after moon rise, Chasey yawned,
Cause this girl could use a shoulder and a polite hand.

And bring your slippers, she said
Easier to shuffle over **** in sheepskin, plus
We might go up on the roof later on
And smoke some of my cubans for a while.

Door will be open, so please don’t ring,
Hell what am I saying, you know the path.
Chasey yawned again, a big one,
Waited a few seconds because there was nothing else to say
And hung up the phone with a sigh.
Isha Nov 2016
Jeg tager bøgerne ud af reolen og bladrer manisk siderne igennem
For at finde en sætning
Eller blot et ord
Dedikeret til os
Finde sammenlignelige, naive digtere for at prøve at bevise
At der i andre tider levede nogle som os
Gående op og ned ad de samme gader
Med fingrene flettede på præcis samme måde
Nogle som os med delt spyt, som vugges med hovedet hvilende på den andens bryst og dette blik, dette hjem vi har skabt i hinanden
Men ikke det mest sortklædte firserpar, der skiftes til at tage et sug af deres delte Gauloises
Ikke Strunge’s bankende brystlomme, nej, ikke engang Gainsbourg og Birkin, ikke Tafdrup eller Thomsen, ingen, nej, nej vi må være guder i al vores almindelighed, guder der køber cola i kiosken, guder når du skyller sveden af mig, vi må være engle når du ligger med dit hoved så fredeligt på puden, dine øjenvipper der ligner fjer og dit rytmiske åndedrag
Vi må være søskende, skilt ad ved fødslen
Skulle vi ikke skamme os, for alt det blod vi har delt
Skulle det ikke være forbudt, ulykkeligt
Skulle vi ikke love hinanden
At lukke øjnene til hver en tid
Skærme os fra solen
Mike Essig Apr 2015
The Day Lady Died**

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton  
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don’t know the people who will feed me

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun  
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets  
in Ghana are doing these days
                                                        I go on to the bank
and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)  
doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life  
and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine  
for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do  
think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or  
Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres
of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine
after practically going to sleep with quandariness

and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and  
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue  
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and  
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing
Lady: Billie Holliday
Perig3e Jan 2011
There has to be a reason
that movies still script
actors lighting cigarettes.
Could it be that tobacco companies
payola directors?
Most likely not.
I think it's a bit like poetry,
where compression can **** a lot
into a little plot.
There's one thing I personally know,
that every time the handsome guy fires up ,
I recollect the Lucky Strikes, the Camels, the Gauloises
and the woman that inspired me to smoke.
All rights reserved by the author
Evan Stephens Sep 2019
The waitress smiles
a little too much
but we don't care,
our little glass lung

of Bordeaux dips away
above slatish cobbles.
A Gauloises whips ash
from a smouldering hand

into the corner table fragment.
Systems of traffic evaporate.
A massive shadow folds
above the grifters.

The river laps
at knees of bread,
while empty bottles
browse the blackness

for their corks.
Beside cathedrals
a dusted dusk glows
& we follow it

back to the hotel.
It's a little room,
our neighbors make love,
& the courtyard roars

with high orange;
I think towards you
when sheets of clouds
betray a skimmed moon,

& we pull sleep around us.
The river tongue falls
& sleek stones gather
to a new language.
Ryan O'Leary Jan 2022
Notre Dame Burns

Dm
Emman-u-elle was Quasi’s bell
Am
without her chimes time can’t tell
E
Gargoyles clinging on for life
Am
Notre Dame Burns 'not the Bard’s wife’

C
Town criers holler in the street
G
communion wine for those they meet
D
All for one and one for all
E
"last of the toasted eucharists call”

              Chorus.

G
From Eiffel Tower, I looked on
Em
A 1,000 years of history gone
C
It’s looking like a Moulin Rouge
D
Was this Allah’s subterfuge

Dm
Cinderella was at the pyre
Am
collecting embers for her squire
E
Ashen crosses on the head
Am
remind us of our glorious dead

C
No acts of god in a secular state
G
but no doubt t'was a crime of hate
D
Rosary beads out of reach
E
no one here, at us to preach

            Chorus.

G
From Eiffel Tower, I looked on
Em
A 1,000 years of history gone
C
It’s looking like a Moulin Rouge
D
Was this Allah’s subterfuge

Dm
Statues icons steeples fall
Am
sanctimonious people call
E
But-tresses begin to bend
Am
yellow vests they’ll appre(hend)

C
Roasted pigeons on the spit
G
Victor Hugo’s fire was a lit
D
People coming form Rive Gauche
E
par-ce-que, c'est la plus proche

                Chorus.

G
From Eiffel Tower, I looked on
Em
A 1,000 years of history gone
C
It’s looking like a Moulin Rouge
D
Was this Allah’s subterfuge

Dm
That’s not far from San Michel
Am
it's 'where do you go to my lovely’s' dwell
E
Shakespeare & Co will sell more books
Am
almost in Seine, from where it looks

C
Notre Dame Burns you shouldn’t smoke
G
are cigarette warnings just a joke
D
Gauloises Gitanes, roll your own
E
turned you into another Joan

               Chorus.

G
From Eiffel Tower, I looked on
Em
A 1,000 years of history gone
C
It’s looking like a Moulin Rouge
D
Was this Allah’s subterfuge

Repeat.

C
Notre Dame Burns, you shouldn't smoke
D
are cigarette warnings just a joke
G
Gauloises Gitanes, roll your own
E
turned you into another Joan*.

                 Chorus.

G
From Eiffel Tower, I looked on
Em
A 1,000 years of history gone
C
It’s looking like a Moulin Rouge
D
Was this Allah’s subterfuge

                 Repeat
G
From Eiffel Tower, I looked on
Em
A 1,000 years of history gone
C
It’s looking like a Moulin Rouge
D
Was this Allah’s subterfuge





Finn Mac Eoin ©
April 16th 2019
Paris.



References in song explained.

The main bell at Notre Dame is
called Emmanuelle.

There is a famous Scottish poet/bard
called Robert Burns.

Joan is a reference to Joan of Arc
also burned at the stake.
Ryan O'Leary Feb 2021
Dm
Emmanu-elle was Quasi’s bell
Am
without her chimes time can’t tell
E
Gargoyles clinging on for life
Am
Notre Dame Burns 'not the Bard’s wife’

Dm
Town criers holler on the street
Am
communion wine for those they meet
E
All for one and one for all
Am
"last of the toasted eucharists call"

Dm
Cinderella was at the pyre
Am
collecting embers for her squire
E
Ashen crosses on the head
Am
remind us of our glorious dead.

Dm
No acts of god in a secular state
Am
but no doubt t'was a crime of hate
E
Rosary beads out of reach
Am
no one here, at us to preach

Dm
Statues icons steeples fall
Am
sanctimonious people call
E
But-tresses begin to bend
Am
yellow vests they’ll apprehend

Dm
Roasted pigeons on the spit
Am
Victor Hugo’s fire was a lit
E
People coming form Rive Gauche
Am
par-ce que, c'est la plus proche

Dm
That’s not far from San Michel
Am
it's 'where do you go to my lovely’s' dwell
E
Shakespeare & Co will sell more books
Am
almost in Seine, from where it looks

Dm
Notre Dame Burns you shouldn’t smoke
Am
are cigarette warnings just a joke
E
Gauloises Gitanes, roll your own
Am
turned you into another Joan

Repeat.

Dm
Notre Dame Burns, you shouldn't smoke
Am
are cigarette warnings just a joke
E
Gauloises Gitanes, roll your own
Am
turned you into another Joan.




Ryan O' Leary ©
24th February 2021
3 chords and truth.
JG O'Connor Jul 2018
She stands outside the shop
Contra Natura,
On Rua Dos Correeiros.
I just happen to see while watching the Brazil match,
The fans in yellow rushing to the square...Park do Comerico

Leaning against the green tiled facade,
Cigarette in her left hand.
Dressed in faded grey jeans,
Black jumper, ***** sneakers,
She is beautiful.

The shop display holds a blindfolded manikin,
Dog collar and lead.
See through plastic underpants,
He looks happy.

She draws on her gauloises
Looks to her left.
And with a look of distain,
Dismisses that reality.

In her annual review,
Her boss Mr Costa has demanded,
That she sells more whips,
Beautifully she looks at him with same dismissal.



In her garret on Rua Da Madalena,
She reads Fernando Pessoa.
Cigarette in the left hand,
A glass of Douro red to her right,
Leg draped over a worn armchair.

This is her real life,
A world devoid of the Slavery of work.
Life and Slavery,
Two ships passing unknown,
Unrecognised,uncommunicative.

Her soul is an orchestra,
I can't decern the instruments.
Harps, piano, drums don't know,
I can only see the music.
Evan Stephens Jan 2021
Today I walked wet streets
strangely sheeted with pennies,

as slant light burnished coil after coil
of hair outside red-***** Macy's,

& the wind pulled open the liquor
doors in the middle of the block.

I missed her as I crossed the blank
green language of grass,

I missed her as I slipped through iron
railings into rain's only face,

I missed her as I hailed the bus on E st
& drifted into a shining glitch.

I lipped a Gauloises and observed
the body of smoke being born.

Then, just before this poem ended,
night appeared in my pocket,

next to the leather and the money,
& it was so hungry, so lonely.

I sheathed the sharpness of my eyes
in pity, and missed her all the more.

— The End —