Rentrez
Let’s go back
To fortyfive-ten
White trellis and doors of green
Where I could be nineteen again
And we would ever be.
We once lived by the park on the corner
Where the cool clothes drift on the line
And brown cats roam free
And the roof’s open
We could climb up into the sky.
When I didn’t feel worried I’d lose it
I was losing it all the time
We straddled the slackline and never slipped off—
Well, I bet I’d feel just the same.
What’s the difference between
Ami et coloc?
I know I would feel the same.
There was nothing in life
Except for my friends
Except except except
Those rotted green doors to fortyfive-ten
The white pigeonshit on the terrasse,
Where we’d stand and smoke cigarettes under the cross—
We were four, we were two, with one name.
Overlooking the Esplanade
Flicking the ash—
*
Rose Jeanou is a lesbian writer and high school teacher based in Providence, Rhode Island. Her fiction and poetry has been featured in HAD, Wrong Publishing, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and many more journals and anthologies. Read her work at rosejeanwrites.com or follow her @rosejeanou on Instagram and Substack.
