Paris in the Rain

Hi
 Alright, uh, this poem is called Paris in the Rain
 I just came back from Paris which is
 A lovely city, um yeah
 Every fantasy begins in Paris
 Especially the recovering romantics
 Who sits outside the mother of all cathedrals praying
 With the dirt and glory of a failed love
 Enshrined beneath her fingernails
 Some cities look like a wet dog that's been beaten
 And I can say that about New Haven, if it even counts as a city
 And I can say that about Moscow, about Rome, about Cairo
 Mid-sand storm fluttering in a skirmish of red dust
 And even Philly with its sewers and its bridges and its rust, but
 But not Paris
 The grandeur of Paris is not lost, not even the rain
 My second night, jet-lagged in heart sore
 I sat up writing after I awoke
 Soaked from a dream where you made love to me
 Your body laid over me like an ocean trying to keep the secret of sand
 The waves saying to the land
 That you are not gold, but you belong to me
 Even now, you belong to me
 And all of Paris belongs to me
 And I belong to this notebook and this pencil
 And I sat repeating this phrase, listening to the unusual weather
 Sing its musical as it stenciled the black rain like drop pupils
 Into the face of concrete, I was reminded of the night
 We sat reading Baldwin, in a loft not big enough for us to stand in
 When the rain beat its head against the roof then too
 I wanted to enter the downpour in my nightgown
 Let it drown me in the nostalgia that I am yet too young to make a mantra of
 Let it chase me through the cobbled streets, sleek with Parisian lights
 Let it find me weak with, with love
 And guillotines and truffled mushrooms
 And love and sauce sau and subway carts
 And love and sidewalk cafes, and did I mention love?
 I mean Paris is the place where the lingerie shops are named Darjeeling
 If that doesn't make you think of sleeping next to a woman
 And then waking up next to that same woman
 And kissing her with the mouth of morning
 And then together, making tea
 I don't know what does
 With the clouds passing overhead in a parade of grey mist
 I waltz with my mother from Napoleon's tomb
 To the cheek of the Mona, through the bare Trillerie Gardens
 Decorated with not a single flower, but I waltzed with her
 Past the bronze statue looking like a choir of bronze ghost, past
 The gossiping fountain and the homeless woman
 Shouting at the top of her lungs, "This chair, belongs to me
 And all the loufa belongs to me.", and it did
 It was made for the rich, but ever since it was the unspoken home
 Of people who need to forget and to remember
 And I am remembering, to forget you
 As best I can, but damn it, you belong to me!
 If only in between the shoulders of September
 If only for the width of fall
 Those days, spent walking downtown with you
 I could wrap my arms around the whole bouquet of Autumn
 But you didn't stay
 Anyway, we waltzed, my mother and me
 And when she grew tired
 I danced without a lover's arms, or any music at all
 Never fearing looking like a fool
 Because people understood that I, was American
 And this was Paris with its star-shaped heart
 With its alive, with its people, and with its carousels
 And ferris wheels and its palaces decorated with gold leaf
 And lollipop shaped trees and all the couples
 Pruning each other with their kisses, and all the well clad children
 Learning that puddles are good for footprints
 Making their, sketching their names in the mud
 Like these boots, they belong to me and I belong to this Earth
 And everyone should fall in love in Paris
 If not for ever, then at least once
 The city is so romantic, you asked me, "How romantic?"
 I wanted to tell you that even its marble has a voice
 I heard it ask me, "Why isn't he here and why isn't he kissing you?"
 My heart, my heart, exploded into a champagne bottle full of tears
 I said, "because he doesn't feel the same." and it said, "You fool
 Did you forget, I belong to you. What are you crying for?
 You're in Paris, in the rain, and the city is weeping too
 She's bearing her soul to you
 But somehow she's not one bit sad."