To fall in love, leave everything behind
and buy a non-stop ticket to Quebec.
Where pigeons line old rooftops, you will find
compelling reasons to stretch out your neck.
And there, equipped with your wide-angle lens,
catch strangers in the act and unaware,
take photographs of lovers holding hands,
of children climbing statues in the square.
Each one of them – a life that has so little
in common with your own – is there for you
and ready to send off a quiet ripple
to tune your senses and transform the view.
The old hotel will turn into a palace,
and vertigo will flood its vestibule.
You will recall the old forgotten palettes
from days of mixing oils back in school.
And in this long-awaited, brief seclusion,
you’ll close your eyes and memories will stir, -
the past and present whipped into a blur, -
and neither one will feel as an intrusion.