Photographs

open box side of the road

help yourself notice free

the flotsam jetsam detritus

of another life gone

family have picked over

left these waifs & strays

& I’m interested to look in

voyeur into a different world

happy smiling faces

wedding? birthday?

strange clothing from a not so

distant past era aeon

playing guess the decade

clues from hairstyles

clothes fashions smoking or not

everybody pleased to be there

dressed up in their best duds

only to be discarded

by time

surplus to requirement

abandoned by the side

of the road

there

under the trees

stopping at the side of the road

taking a walk

long slopes cool breeze

how do you know this place?

oh I’ve stopped here for years

clear my head

sit & listen to the birds

& there just there I think

under the trees is where

I made love to her

but I cannot tell you that

for you that’s diseased

& I can feel ghosts

tugging soft at my sleeve

we sit for five minutes

that feel like hours

c’mon we got miles to do

thank you for stopping

she smiles it’s a nice place

I’m pleased

you’ve shared this with me

kir s’il vous plait

dirty sign side of the road

washed dark with tyre spray

single bulb lighting FRITES

& I was hungry enough to stop

parked up went in through a dark door

to a just opened easy food smell

a little brunette smiled b’jour

offered me a table close to her

& I realised I’d not spoken

for close on to two days

hearing my voice rasp slow

kir s’il vous plait

which surprised her some

she brought that & a plastic menu

drifted back to her kitchen

while I pondered over steak or burger

could this be love?

I ordered the steak & of course frites

which she brought with a smile

a cold beer from the presion tap

suggested bon’appetit & was gone

while I wished we could talk more

after eating I ordered a café crem grande

& still nobody else had appeared

I thanked her paid fifteen euros

left a tip sighed a’voir thinking adios

creaked through the door into the rain

out into my world of driving & silence

once more