- After 14 hours it is hard to distinguish
the stench of billingual-sweat-stained
train leather worn from my own waxy
flesh. Both bury smoke in spongy pores
like lonely lovers on one night box spring
boards - On a 3 a.m. from Hamburg I met a
woman. Swaggering, she lurched with the train
her bare breasts pressed flat on the window
Spotlighted by the jasmine moon
like glistening cherry crepes. - I saw Vienna stars last night
jagged and cold as the chips in my
back on the concrete banks of the Seine. - I feel red as the map line between
legendary stars. The shortest distance between
two points is not this. I feel like a short
cut gone bad. Last night I talked to a reflection
broiled for twenty minutes in the mist coated
window of evening third class. - Do you prefer black and clean or
white and dirty? - In Greece today, Baklava sat like cast iron
weight in my stomach. I sweat ouzo that
pours aniseed air in streams along my flesh.
I am drunk on my own scent. - With feet buried in damp Mediterranean sands
I ate papaya, insides reminded me
of silicone breasts corroded with cancer.
I stared through the union of smoky grey sky and sea
fingers pressed circulating in soft lumpy centers like nipples. - Brobst! Frothing black beer erodes
concrete slumber on train station floors
laminated with urine. 50 marcs will buy two squares
of tissue and a few moments with feces-stained porcelain. - Painted my body in Aalborg after rolling the day and licking it shut
with dehydrated tongue on waxy paper.
Emerald wings seemed fitting on skin that won't stretch
I think the sign said sterile, but you know false cognates
(estoy embarrazada!) - Ran like a nymph through Hvid-hus park today.
Denmark leaves are much softer on virgin arches.
Soiled jeans and tee scattered the lawn as I wedged
my soft body between the cold emerald frames of the girls.
Thank heaven for automatic timers. - Smothered apples with imitation peanut butter on the
way to my plane. How I long to eat the fruits of the fridge.
Toothless man bought me a coke and offered a motorcycle
ride to his "village." Why do we speak louder and slower
with non-English speaking people? - Foreign tongues stand out like flutes
among clanging symbols of English drawl. I'm in Chicago
and wanting one-way tickets to anywhere but home. I'd sell
my body for the carbon copies but couldn't buy a destination farther
than Indiana. See you tonight...© 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Kaleidoscope 
Last update: 5 June 2000
URL: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/kaleidoscope/volume5/postcards.html
Postcards from Europe
Flo: