Atop Musee de l’Institut du Monde Arabe facing Notre Dame
Under steel, glass, salmon tapestries draped between palm
Fronds, I eat lamb in clay casserole of prunes, nuts, astrolabe
Forbidden magic texts, celestial spheres, astrological manuscripts
Windows a mosaic of optical shutters adjusting to hours of
Light and night, scales, Koran, oil lamps, fragments of funereal
Stele, Kurdish tapestries, The Hunt, The Flower, The Court
Funereal frieze, funereal column, tile, Tunisia, Syria, Iran
Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, Jew, Christian, Islam, savoring every
Bubbling forkful of lusterware glass and pottery, crystal handled
Dagger imbedded with rubies, pearl, gold filigree necklace
Stuffed with perfume, hare, fish, lion, calligraphic morsel rescued
From House of Wisdom, illuminated, dipping a sweet baguette
I buy a few postcards, admire the flying buttresses of Notre Dame
Cross the river again to sit in a park. It’s very warm. A man feeds
Pigeons, which one expects in a park. The pigeons eat their feast of crumbs.
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