GONNA TWIST THIS ONE THEN STILETTO IT
ALL THESE TINGS HAPPENIN AT ONCE. WHAT A WORLD.

SOME SIMULTANEITY

As a grumbling but happy French comedian
shoves his fingers into the fountain in Dijon,
a troop of monkeys rounds
the horizon of the pink square.
Intent on mischief, they piss in the pool.

After sunning herself on a carpet of chilly blues,
an elderly farmer sneezes theatrically
and feels her abdominal muscles
tighten.

On a country lane in Wiltshire, a mother presses
her sons into a prickly hedge
as a vintage Wolsley speeds
past them in the late afternoon haze.

It rains on the outskirts of Brussels. Koen scrubs mussels
in his bedsit above the bar
on the corner of Avenue Constant Permeke
and Rue Fernand Léger.
It’s five thirty-seven and he still needs to buy beer.