Poem ( again maybe)

Bittersweet moment on a Paris street.

He : "Excuse Madame"

She: "I am sorry I don't speak French"

He: "My English is very bad"

She "My French too"

He: "Have you got a cigarette"?

She: " I am sorry,I don't smoke"

He: "No problem,au revoir Madame"

And the young man walked away.leaving the the older woman with an acute sense of loss.

May 2004 ,Paris, Helen Collins

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