PARIS METRO HAIKU
by Ethan Gilsdorf

I. Exiting the train
a shock, brown painted eyebrows,
makeup overkill.

II. People too eager.
Step on my body, go ahead.
Escalator blues.

III. Through a dull tunnel
of people, accordion
lifts, inspires a Monday.

IV. Tight pants seated, filled
full: it’s about marketing,
packaging the ass.

V. Finches shift along
the platform, proving you exist.
Isn’t this enough?

VI. He reads the Bach score
like a novel, hushed notes
and staves his forest.

VII. The escalator,
waterfall frozen mid-step.
Out of order -- ha!

VIII. Fools? Not this drenched herd
commuting, wretched yet safe
from trying the door.

Editor's Note: Ethan Gilsdorf is managing editor of Frank (http://www.readfrank.com), a film and restaurant critic for Time Out’s Paris office, and a regular contributor to Poet and Writers, Literary Review of Canada, and Paris Notes. One of the prime organizers of World Poetry day, March 21, 2003.