NEVER BEEN TO PARIS

For Caitlin

I always meant to go to Paris. I don’t know why.
I suppose I was always told I should go there
By dead men. Hemingway and Steinbeck and Ferlinghetti.
They never had any fun there.

I had a good time in Pittsburgh once. We ate too much and stayed up too late
And drank too much whisky and talked about things
We didn’t have the answers to. It was fun.
But it wasn’t fun because it was Pittsburgh.

Never been to Paris. You’re in Paris now. Or somewhere like it.
If you were here we’d laugh and dance
And I’d play guitar and your dad and I would drink too much.
I miss you tonight, and you’re six hours away by jet.

Never been to Paris.
You’ll have to tell me what it’s like.

Note: My niece, Caitlin Reiss, was not in Paris at the time of the writing of this poem.