Fraternité -- Now More Than Ever

It took a week  
before I could even link
the horror in Paris
with my little site.
Then, in my head,
I formulated a tribute to Paris,
But it turned out,
I had written it, last January.

http://www.georgevecsey.com/home/nous-sommes-tous-francais
 
I cannot write another one
about the deep shuddering joy
of  being in the City of Light
On a Friday evening.
 
One ex-pat friend,
Living in La France Profonde, wrote me,
“No one does life better than the French.”
That’s why they are targets, he added.
 
Another friend is flying over, next week. 
“It'll be my little contribution to saying %$&# you
to the murderers who tried to take the city away from those of us who cherish it
and what it represents.”
 
I won't write about the narrow streets
Or the aroma of coq au vin in the mist.
Better I write about the French people
Who spoke to us in English  after 9/11
and made room for us on the Metro.
 
Now I watch survivors like the beautiful couple on Anderson Cooper,
the woman's face haunted
the young man (a model, I looked it up),
volunteering sympathy for Syrian migrants, who have their own misery.
 
Another man lost his lovely wife
In the music club
and wrote a tribute to her,
And promised to live without hatred. 
Is it possible? 

The young man volunteered that he understood the plight of Syrians, also.