Author Archives: Marie Rousseau

I’ll be the one heckling at you from the crowd
When the music is so silent it’s loud
Oh I’m happiest in those concert halls
Where the melodies tune out the brawls
Happening outside
On the damp dark streets
And even when I don’t have a clue
Where I’m going
Strangers still ask me for directions

The boy with the shaved head
 Wears white boxer briefs
 and reads Susan Sontag
 On Photography 
 
 Being in bed with you
 Made me want to write poetry
 
 In your Patrick Swayze sweatshirt
 A gift and an inside joke
 On the set of a film you worked on
 I kissed you
 
 Rolls of film in the fridge
 Pasta at midnight
 I’ll remember holding you tight
 Because I thought
 
Everyone
Deserves to be held
Deserves to be held 

What happens when you start flirting with your best friend?

I ask you about your love life and you become embarrassed

We have never seen each other that way

At least I hadn’t

But that beard you’ve grown looks good on you.

I wear my past like a shirt

Sometimes it’s tight and soft

And close to my heart

Sometimes I don’t wear a bra underneath

And my nipples show

Sometimes it’s a halter top

My collarbone sticks out

I wear my past like a shirt

It clings to me

But at night I take it off

I sleep better.

Back in Avignon

I thought happiness was

A hammock blowing in the wind

The sun on my skin

Naked in your pool

The rocking of the olive tree

I want a nickname

And the friends that come with it

I want a pet bar

And a bartender in it

You said you didn’t like things that end

That’s why you didn’t like sunsets

Today I saw the photographer

and the graphic novel

publisher

I saw my former friend

On her bike last night

Later I found out she was wed

What does it mean?

Oh fate

You always seemed a bit too keen

To bear down on me

I added a letter to no

And it formed the word

In my other tongue

You know honey 

I really thought 

I would die

So many times

Struck by disaster

Does it ever really help you master

Fear?

I met my former high school crush

Paul

At a bar

And he asked

“Have you ever fallen in love?”

And I said

No

It’ll happen when you least expect it 

They said

It’ll happen when you least expect it

You opened the door for me 

As soon as I arrived

In front of the old customs building

As though you had been waiting

I was surprised when I saw you

I expected the other boyfriend

You led me to the ground floor kitchen

And we chatted with Olga

The Polish actress

And her husband gave me a 

Grilled cheese sandwich

With tomato

They told me about the 

Dildo carving workshop

They were organising

At the Christmas market

Then you showed me to your apartment

Up the stairs

And made me some fresh ginger tea 

With agave syrup

We sat on the couch

And talked for two hours straight

As though we were meant to be there

I felt so strongly as though the seas 

Were parting between us

Drawn together like magnets

I know you felt it too

When you were standing there alone

Leaning against the bar

With your arms outstretched

As I was sound-checking