Cargo Literary Magazine

Compelling stories of human development through the lens of travel

  • Home
  • Issues
  • Features
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Photography
    • Poetry
    • Review
    • Visual Art
  • Submit
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Contact

Just When I was About to Give Up on Splendor

December 6, 2016 Tim Suermondt

 

 

I sat on a park bench

between the Seine and the monument at Bastille.

Balloons from a street fair raced
to the pepper-gray sky, winter about to do its painting.

Traffic hummed around the circle from all directions,

a soufflé of motorbikes in the distance, approaching.

A woman in a yellow coat waved
to a man who was close enough to me to give me hope.

I sat as the leaves and some newspaper pages

slid and skipped over my shoes, as the lights of the Opera

slowly came on, and when I stood up I saw my reflection
in the leaves of a huge, scarred tree.

I had become a giant, one who couldn’t help wondering

why he so ungraciously ever thought it was otherwise.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

About Tim Suermondt

Tim Suermondt is the author of three full-length collections of poems: Trying To Help The Elephant Man Dance (The Backwaters Press, 2007), Just Beautiful (New York Quarterly Books, 2010) and Election Night And The Five Satins (Glass Lyre Press, 20i6)—along with three chapbooks. He has poems published in Poetry, The Georgia Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Blackbird, Bellevue Literary Review, North Dakota Quarterly, december Magazine, Plume Poetry Journal, The Southeast Review, Poetry East, and Stand Magazine, among others. He is a book reviewer for Cervena Barva Press and a poetry reviewer for Bellevue Literary Review. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Paris France

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe to to receive new issues and updates from Cargo Literary Magazine.

Tags

Africa Alaska Art Brighton England Canada Central America China Cuba Egypt England Europe France Germany Greece Guatemala Home Hungary India Israel Italy Japan Madrid Mexico Nepal New York City Niagara Ontario Oregon Paris Paris France Philippines Poland Puerto Rico Sahara Singapore South Korea Spain Syria Thailand Tibet travel Turkey Veranasi India Vietnam writing life
« Petra, Jordon
Cover Issue #8: Alberto »

© 2023 · Cargo Literary Magazine · Website by SunriseWeb.ca