Qu’est-ce Qui se Passe?
Michael Lauchlan
Once, passing through Montreal
and anxious to use my French,
I questioned a man on the fringe
of a gathering crowd, then
stood nodding through his response,
trying and failing to look
either amused or grave.
Now, cycling, I’ve paused
to drink because this hill
is where I turn toward home,
because it's my limit, because
I’m not young. Below
enflannelled fisherwomen and men
wait on the river’s dock
for a bite. About fish
and fishing I know little.
Only what they say
when I ask what they’ve caught.
Only how it looks from above,
how their words echo and cross
toward the far bank
where the trees’ one sentence breathes
from a thousand greening limbs.
Michael Lauchlan has contributed to many publications, including New England Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The North American Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Sugar House Review, Louisville Review, Poet Lore, Southern Poetry Review, and Lake Effect. His most recent collection is Trumbull Ave., from WSU Press (2015).