by Alan Catlin
The day after
Palm Sunday
in Paris is now
Black Monday.
The flames
oddly beautiful
at night
like fire fight
mad minute
tracer rounds
in the jungle
or the rockets
Wilfred Owen
was transfixed by
in the trenches
of a no man’s land
during World War 1.
The Nazis were
supposed to burn
the city as they left
but disobeyed
high command
orders.
When asked
Is Paris Burning?
There was no
answer.
Paris is burning now.
Alan Catlin has published dozens of chapbooks and full-length books, most recently the chapbook Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance (Presa Press), a series of ekphrastic poems responding to the work of German photographer August Sander who did portraits of Germans before, during, and after both World Wars.
