A small town on the river

 

Tonight the beer is dark

I can’t understand why

 

The barges are low in the water

Bow waves wash along the decks

 

I share a word of pleasure with a stranger,

        in her language,

As we watch a heron pose

 

The accordion player smiles right into my eyes

In thanks for a coin

 

In the crowd the football songs are the same

 

Young lads, well drunken

Ask the way to the old town

And apologize for their schoolboy English

 

Over fish soup

Two businessmen write down where to visit

Discuss the war

And Clint Eastwood, who they’d met on holiday

 

Why should anyone want to kill these people?

 

 

 

Private Health Providers

 

First they came for the glasses

And I said nothing because I could afford glasses

 

Then they came for the teeth

And I said nothing because I could afford teeth

 

Then they came for the warts

And I said nothing because I could afford warts

 

Then they came for the heart surgery