eight

Dawn flooded Saint-Ouen
on a night when I could not sleep.
I had a secret,
though I didn't know it yet.

Went down to a cafe
whose name I should have written down;
I will probably now
never know it.

Somewhere meanwhile in town,
unbeknownst to me,
there slept, or did not sleep, this guy.
I put two sugars in my coffee.

When in Rome. I wonder
whether Drastus even existed yet
or whether
it lay dormant in a brain and body

asleep or not asleep,
clear across town or around the corner,
collecting aware or unaware
the stray threads of its gathering howl.