The World drifts in

 

Dog Rose V 40 x 50 cm acryl/spray paint on canvas - available -

GARY COOPER’S REAL AGE

A Swedish woman in Madrid helped us out

   she wore a blue uniform, a little red hat, tour guide

go to the youth hostel, she said, there you will find shelter

   what we found was an endless line

of young Europeans each holding a regulation bed sheet

   they looked different from us, noses and cheekbones

emphatic as if their faces had been fashioned from

the cobblestone road that runs between palace and cathedral

stoic boredom in their eyes traces of irony

   around their mouths

I remember walking under the orange trees of Cordoba 

   longing for a cigarette

   it was Sunday morning in southern Spain

   you can’t buy things Sunday mornings in Europe

   well regulated fountains splashing down

   to the Jewish Quarter, no Jews now though, expelled in 1492, no more Jews

after Columbus sailed the ocean

   took my first shit on the continent at a train station

Spanish-French border, Port Bou (Spain) Cerbère (France) the toilet (Turkish)

   room for the feet either side of a hole     interesting, non?

French border official looked like a Gallic Paul McCartney

   sans bass guitar sans Liverpool accent

had steak and pommes frites for dinner got lost in the Louvre

before it became Facebook showcase for selfie-taking philistines

   (thus bitched the old man, all day and well into the night)

Californians tossing Frisbees in St. Peter’s square     my fellow Americans

if provoked in Europe offer an annoyingly superior smile

light a cigarette, shrug ever

   so slightly     stoic, ironic   darling do I look like

          the secretary of state

   director of CIA    chairman of the fucking board of whatever corporation’s   

        destroying our universe      can I buy you a latte at             

Starbucks?       stoic, ironic

someone actually said I looked like Gary Cooper

   Christ, I was only eighteen

Gary Cooper was always fifty, I believe, or at least forty

   but never eighteen      this is where irony might have come in handy