English followed by une version en français y una versión en español. There is also a Notes section in English.

Getting posted in Montaigbakhtinian is just a first step. The work becomes subject to review and revision, and there are times when the author is forced to recognize that the thing just didn’t work as well as he had thought. And he cannot, or cannot yet, figure out how to resuscitate the thing.

And yet, I have some hopes for these revisions, made in September 2023.

Merde alors !

21 juillet 2023, Genève

What a day, and not yet 10,

My coffee not half drunk.

Markus comes in to Emery’s

With his nanny and his trottinette and his baby-blue bike helmet,

And me working on yet another piece about global-warming.

And hardly are we saying hello

And putting strawberry jam on our croissants . . .

It starts raining.

Markus turns to the rain,

Just beyond the open doors of the café,

Just down the hill from the headquarters of the world’s largest humanitarian network,

Dedicated to “saving lives,” “promoting dignity,” “building community resilience,”

And putting a hand to his broad-ish, four-year-old forehead,

He says, “Merde alors !”

Notes

Trotinette = kids’ scooter & Merde ! = Shit! or Dammit!  & Merde alors ! = Shee-it!

Eric Emery has a boulangerie-patisserie-chocolaterie (complete with café) in Geneva, Switzerland, on the edge of the large collection of international organizations which cluster around le Palais des Nations: l’Office des Nations Unies à Genève.

The current poem would seem to echo faintly Robert Creeley’s best-known poem, I Know a Man. In the forefront of my mind, however, as I was doing the drafting was one of my previous poems:

2 May 2019, New York

What a day, and not yet 10!

A neighbor remarked on the crazy weather –

Snow in the mountains, warm in the south!

Or did she mean just the reverse,

Like the lovely two not far away

Sipping their lattes in my café

Next a young man who’s very loudly

Selling a script while the couple tries

To unsettle their divorce, and nevertheless

I’m doing my best to progress

With Our Mutual Friend, in which

A father’s been accused of murder,

And his son has run away,

My coffee not half drunk.

Français

Merde alors !

Quelle journée, et pas encore 10 h,

Mon espresso pas encore bu.

Markus entre dans notre café-boulangerie

Avec sa nounou, sa trottinette et son casque de vélo bleu layette,

Et moi qui travaille sur un autre article sur le réchauffement de la planète.

Et à peine sommes-nous en train de nous dire bonjour

Et de mettre de la confiture sur nos croissants…

Il se met à pleuvoir.

Markus se tourne vers la pluie

Juste au-delà des portes ouvertes du café,

Tout près du siège du plus grand réseau humanitaire au monde,

Dedié à “sauver des vies”, à “promouvoir la dignité”, à “renforcer la résilience des communautés”.

Et portant une main à son front large de quatre ans,

Il dit : « Merde alors ! »

Español

Merde alors !

Qué día, y aún no son las 10,

mi café no medio bebido.

Markus viene a Emery’s con su niñera y su trottinette y su casco de bicicleta azul bebé,

y yo trabajando en otro artículo sobre el calentamiento global.

Y apenas nos saludamos

y poniendo mermelada en nuestros croissants…

Empieza a llover.

Markus se vuelve hacia la lluvia

justo al otro lado de las puertas abiertas del café,

bajando la colina de la sede de la mayor red humanitaria del mundo,

dedicada a “salvar vidas”, “promover la dignidad”, “fomentar la resiliencia de las comunidades”.

Y poniendo una mano en su ancha frente de cuatro años,

dice: « ¡Merde alors! »

— Poem(s) and drawing by William Eaton. The drawing is after a part of a photo by the Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm (1918-2002).