Quai de l’Archevêché: Midi

by Robert Fraser

There is quiet here, so here let us perch
Sur notre parapet de l’Archevêché,
Watching the water dance.

Behind us crowd lunchers,
Such resolute munchers,
And cultural gluttons
Are clicking their buttons
Which mindlessly pester
The lazy siesta
Of those who, like us,
Have nothing to do
But gaze…

Before us the Seine
Fanfares joyful fiesta
Of trumpeting June;
The lights on her water
Re-echo our laughter,
The leaves on her banks
Your shimmering hair.
Where are your frowns now,
Thoughts that pulled us down,
Drowning together,
Now?

Love, let us sit,
Warm cheeks together,
Or soothing tongues gently entwined,
Let us ignore
The rush and the madness,
And open our eyes to the glittering deep.

Ah, Notre Dame,
Mother of Sorrows,
Dream of the ages,
Here may we meet you,
Awfully greet you,
Now while the sun inherits the steep.

And, perhaps, newly blest,
May stare at this river
And watch our renewal with a gathering surprize,
May see the freshening skins of our nature,
And gaze at the birthday shine of our eyes.

Before the brilliant truth of this moment,
All our lying,
Our vacant denying,
Must gutter soon,
For upon the candid face of this water
The shadows but heighten
The truth of the noon.