40 rue Saint Paul

By Geoffrey Aitken

he’s undercover

at an adjacent table.

 

a winter coat

fedora low, angled,

 

tip of his hat

 

accompanies

a wink, at departure.

 

his Noisette

unfinished.

 

deeper in this café

i see into the past

where my image

 

resides

in a mirror.

 

a seated child

in a small

inner city theatre

 

watches film Noir.

Geoffrey Aitken writes on Adelaide’s unceded Kaurna land, an awarded minimalist poet who leans into his ‘lived experience disability’, published [AUS] and [UK, US, HR, CAN, FR & CN]. Recently, ‘Social Alternatives’ [AUS], ‘Libre Lit’, ‘the engine(idling’ [US], ‘The Broken City’ [CAN], soon, ‘Verge Anthology 2025’ [AUS] and ‘The Closed Eye Open’ [US]. Nominated Best of the Net in 2022.