Montreal, summer 2002
A fountain washes water with itself.
The trees around it shade the rippling flow
while scattered people rest on the grass
and shifting coins create an undertow.
Nostalgia is resolved in children’s cries
who cannot yet conceive the sky above.
Ambition settles well in the skin,
as energy defines the ways we love.
Montpellier, summer 2011
The fountain, further off in the square, echoes
softly in the air along with crickets’ wings
and kids’ cries for more.
There’s also a pond settled lazy at the feet
of several dozens of people
gathered, who share eyes, experiment with speech.
And in the midst of so many and so much
the presence or absence of one
tows me to this side of sanity, is stability, is touch.