Father and daughter,
​Cafe du Soleil on Broadway
​

It’s graduation week
at Columbia  
he searches in the menu  
through omelette
ratatouilles
overcooked ravioli  
and mixed greens  
the words to tell her  
I am so proud of you  
my dear Anne 

Is this your kind of favourite place?  
Is it still a stressful time around here?  
She answers  
He looks now at his cellphone  
As he already ordered  
his steak sandwich  

Anne is moving to London  
to work at a law firm  
she found a place with Sophie  
Anne is going to the restroom  
he is not listening anyway   
​
Could I do the burrata salad  
she asks to the waitress  
who congratulates her on  
her graduation day and 
Anne wishes a few  
kisses from her  
as she misses them  
from her dad. 

Constantin Brancusi, Une muse (marble), 1912.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

---

​Watch me
​

Watch
me
taking my time
to go faraway
while I kiss you
very close
among lands
that you don't see
with the side streets
in this living room
from the jealous windows
while I talk 
to you
nothing more
than love
that might rhyme
with leaves,
with seas,
sea basses and greens?
As I do with my
brown leather
watch
which doesn't work
​anymore
watch me
close
walking on the sides
of my lips
or yours who knows
while I kiss you
​again or was it before

with my tongue
circling
or perhaps loading
a supposedly working little gun
turning, softly, with my fingers
your milk teeth
checking the time
on your brown watch
which almost works
you think it does
on your left wrist
I keep it on my right
so that people think
look she writes 
with her left hand
and I have a Cartier
which is the legacy
of Jackie Kennedy Onassis
watch
watch me
while I see you
sleeping with duck feathers
around your neck
before the morning breaks
and it's time for rings
and brownies' watches again
watch 
watch me
while I write
without good sounds
​no rhymes

---

The Semicolon

I read that it is a powerful mark
of punctuation with three main uses.
It is used to join two
independent clauses
close in meaning, but
that would equally well stand alone
as complete sentences.
When joined by the semicolon
the two become related to each other
and this results 
in a stronger
sentence.
When joined the two
are given equal position or rank.
Other grammars argue that the semicolon
can mark a separation
that disjoins sentences. 

Follow us

About

St Anne's Academic Review

Submissions