That Was Then

On a chair

By the square

On a nothing kind of day

With a book

And a pen

And a cafe au lait

Not a care

Not a sigh

Just my coffee and my one Madeleine

That was then

Different day

Different drink

At the Hotel Rochechouart

I’d just sipped

When you tripped

Loudly entering the bar

Time stood still

Unlike you

Remonstrating with your shoe

That was when

That was then

So they say that you know

Exactly the moment

And that moment was the same

For me and for you

Was it chance, was it fortune

The door neatly caught you

Now my heart is playing your tune

Again

I dropped the pen

It was new, it was old

It was like the poets told us

And the story couldn’t hold us anymore

Bursting out, bursting in

So much laughter after thinking of the door

And you on the floor

Did we really swim in the Seine

Were we insane? Were we in Seine?

Then you proudly announced

That in France it’s pronounced

“Dans La Seine”

That was then

That was then

That was then

Now I’m here

With the pen long since snapped

No one laughed

No one cheered

No one stood there and clapped

Just a page

In my book

And a joke I wrote that ended “Ah Men!”

Amen…

Back again

Same old spot

With my coffee and my bic

Where are you? Was it true?

Was it all a nasty trick?

All the pain

All the pens

I’d do anything to have that again

Any moment

Exactly that moment

But that was then