by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: “Dreamcatcher”, by Kai Stachowiak

Beauty in small, everyday things
Helps you put everything into perspective.
Champs-Élysées has the almost unreal beauty of a dream,
Two cherry threes are in blossom in front of a bookstore, 
The ghosts from inside books’ pages came out in their smart or funny clothes,
To stare at the pink metaphors of human existence…..

Immersed in an odd silence, I walk,
Looks like a pedestrians’ strike.
It feels viscerally wrong, 
My thoughts of “solastalgia”
Bounce on stacked bistro chairs and abandoned happy-hour menus.
A statue wearing a mask reminds me that 
The current despoliation is unrelated to the rain or any ecological crisis,
And I touch my pocked to feel the antiseptic immediacy.

Generally, I feel fine,
Until a drone stops above my head and a voice from inside yells at me
“We are at war!” 
I am not sure if I should run or greet the voice inside the drone,
And with unexpected new awkwardness I blow it a kiss,
Only to remember that there is a ban on air-kissing too.

I walk faster,
Rethinking my trip to go get bread on a sea of extreme waves:
Happiness from seeing the cherry trees and the ghosts under,
Sadness over the streets devoid of much life, 
And anxiety from the pandemic.

Note: I wrote this in March, when France was in quarantine. Much has changed in Paris(and the world!) since then…

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