XAVIER'S TAKE ON LIFE.
Xavier looks down from the bridge.
John Berryman jumped from here,
He muses, noting the water, hearing
The sounds behind and below. Xavier
Looks up at the sky, sees birds, clouds.
Many reasons why some person might
Want to jump and die. Also many reasons
Not to. Xavier breathes in the air, it hits
His lungs, fresh, cool. Berryman and Henry
Were they the same? What’s in a name?
Xavier remembers reading Berryman’s
Poems, drinking in the words, the themes,
The humour, the haunting. Xavier lights up
A cigarette, walks on, seen the place, puts
In his book of experiences, things to do and
Places to see. Xavier remembers that night
In Paris, the church in the side street, that
Man crying in a pew, silently, hands covering
His face and that young woman sitting outside
The cafe with her leg crossed over the other
Revealing thighs to die for. Xavier looks back
At the bridge where Berryman jumped in 1972.
What else to do? What else to see? Maybe,
Xavier muses, where Ezra Pound was held
Prisoner after WW2 in that cage in Pisa Italy.
