“Maison Guillaume” by Allan Lake
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Maison Guillaume” by Allan Lake, part of the League’s Fresh Voices program.
Maison Guillaume
By Allan Lake
Then โฆ an authentique French cafรฉ
in the not-very-french โParis endโ
of wee/mais oui Ormond Road
shopping strip in sometime Greek,
sometime Italian but entirely unfrench
Melbourne. So, local jokes aside,
every other cafe (sans sexy accent)
has french fries but thatโs about as Gallic
as it gets. Nouveau Cafรฉ opened โ ooh la la! โ
at big roundabout where short Ormond
Road and much longer Glen Huntly Road,
how you say, get mariรฉ together.
To celebrate I first flirted with, then
โdisappearedโ a delicieux escargot
that made evacuating a warm bed,
getting dressed and walking down
my short but chilly winter street
worth any odyssรฉe.
Copyright ยฉ Allan Lake
Allan Lake, originally from Canada, has lived in Saskatoon, Cape Breton Island, Ibiza, Tasmania, Western Australia and Melbourne. His latest chapbook of poems, โMy Photos of Sicilyโ, was published by Ginninderra Press. Such journals as The Hong Kong Review, The Fieldstone Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, The Antigonish Review, New Philosopher and Fabians Review have published him.
Fresh Voices is a publication and workshop program created by and for the League’s associate members, curated and edited by Erin Vance.
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