STRASBOURG SOAKING
Lavender rain cloudscape herringbones charcoal sky.
We shuttle past the International Institute of Human Rights,
cross from Germany into France
over a steel trellis bridge transecting the Rhine.
Moss green canals mirror Romanesque buildings
housing bakeries, coffee shops, restaurants.
Gothic cathedral spires pierce nimbostratus clouds.
Swan flotillas navigate between sightseeing gondolas.
Slick cobblestones, a string of bicyclists,
skinny streets lead us to Notre Dame
where we are dazzled by stained glass pentacles,
14 th century astronomical clock,
Death and the devil,
a procession of Christ and his apostles
summoned by mechanical rooster.
Later, we are caught in an unending deluge,
unsuccessfully seek shelter beneath golden sycamores,
cower within a stone arch above flooded stairwell.
Gutters fill, overflow, turn passageways into rivers.
Sodden, we press together for warmth
under borrowed umbrella.
BIO:
Jennifer Lagier has published nineteen books, in a variety of anthologies and literary magazines, edits the Monterey Poetry Review, helps coordinate Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Sunday readings. Recent books: Meditations on Seascapes and Cypress (Blue Light Press) and COVID Dissonance (CyberWit), Camille Chronicles (FutureCycle Press). Website and Facebook.
OVUNQUE SIAMO 