{"id":1759,"date":"2015-05-02T09:42:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-02T16:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/?p=1759"},"modified":"2021-08-18T14:38:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T21:38:25","slug":"urbane-martini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/urbane-martini\/","title":{"rendered":"Urbane Martini"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Don Ernsting<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Light scatters through frail leaves in bay<\/span>
\nwindows. A band of smog-softened sun<\/span><\/p>\n

edges along the chaise longue.\u00a0A jewel<\/span>
\nignites when beams reach the bottle<\/span><\/p>\n

and I raise my eyes to hear you say:<\/span>
\nThe past<\/em>\u00a0is a feeble attempt at the present<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This former\u00a0is Weltstadt<\/em> is on the ebb.<\/span>
\nWe must soon pack our books and move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

But not yet.\u00a0 We both need another.<\/span>
\nWith any luck we’ll be in bed before<\/span><\/p>\n

this digests,\u00a0fake moonlight from the neons<\/span>
\nfalling\u00a0across our shoulders and chests.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Weltstadt in question was Montreal. \u00a0Don, a bookseller \u00a0and collectionneur had been displaced there by the postwar sexual puritanism of the Dutch.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We had met on the M.S. Alexander Pushkin, a Soviet liner which plied the North Atlantic, one of the three transatlantic crossings I’ve made.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We were bound for a year in Paris, where we regularly met at the Flore or Deux Magots for drinking and … just checking things out. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This was not as banal as it has become since 1972.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Our friendship continued on our return to Montreal and for years thereafter. As did the ambiguity which is the true topic of this poem.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Don Ernsting Light scatters through frail leaves in bay windows. A band of smog-softened sun edges along the chaise longue.\u00a0A jewel ignites when beams reach the bottle and I raise my eyes to hear you say: The past\u00a0is a feeble attempt at the present. This former\u00a0is Weltstadt is on the ebb. We must soon … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Urbane Martini”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[42,8,27],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-friendship","tag-memories","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4361,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/4361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/pastis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}