Anything Goes
My favourite café in Montréal undergoes a renovation.
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Otherwise, enjoy the ride.
ANYTHING GOES
1.
I sit inside Club Social
hoping someday it will feel
like home
I love this place
it has something for everyone
unpretentious, tasteful*
football (not American)
or hockey on the TV
french commercials in-between
old italian men, regulars
take their leave
(I wish to be one of them
to shake hands with eternity)
but now it’s 2020 and anything goes
be old, young; anything goes
take it wherever you like
wear it however it shows
loud, quiet, here, there
anything goes
(anything goes)
—
2.
Club Social decaf americano: me
guilty cigarette and a clear blue February sky
this Tuesday afternoon push my worries past the horizon
eat a Fisherman’s Friend and walk home before five
every song becomes foolish
like a fur coat (real or otherwise)
like a baby dancing
cars, or violence
(foolish songs, search for belonging)
now I sit among strangers
and pretend to be a poem:
a smoker, a Greek in Rome
a drop on the windshield
a song or a piazza, cobblestone
anything goes
(it’s 2020)
anything goes
—
* Club Social was renovated during the first wave of the COVID-19 shutdown: fake marble, reclaimed barn-board, Edison bulbs and the like. Whether or not this is intended to dissuade the patronage of the new generation (sub-50, un-Adriatic) is as effective as it is unknown.