birthday card

 

 

Denis Denis, avec tes yeux si bleux

Denis Denis, moi j’ai flashe a nous deux

Denis Denis, un grand baiser d’eternite

– from Denis Denis by Blondie

 

my oh my

the postcard

was sent in 1996

I scan it again

in another century

dearest Jeff

Happy Birthday 

it says

and Susan sends four kisses

 

she writes in blue ink

and’s added in red:

this chap looks like 

a good dinner guest

don’t you think?

‘this chap’ is a painting*

on the other side

his name is Monsieur Huc

and I do think

 

he’s soignée

to say the least:

white collarless shirt

with shot cuffs

cigarette in a holder

pince-nez

blue eyes

curly tache

pointy beard

smoke curls from

his gasper

a silk hanky

peeps at his breast

 

this is how

he looked in 1892

too early for Susan

she invited me instead

I know she bought me

a lovely present

because she always did

her best present was

her scatty clever self

 

I hope I was

as good a guest

as Monsieur Huc

might have been

not as soignée maybe

but a hanky

at my breast

nonetheless

 

Susan died in 2004

she’s ever alive

in my dreams

one night

we might

meet for dinner

 

Jeff Cloves

 

* Maurice Denis painter (1870-1943)

He was born in November

and died on November 13th

Susan was born on 13th November

I were born in November too.

 

 

Poet Dennis Gould was 80 on 23rd Aug

I have a feeling he was in IT number !

when it was a print.

 

He certainly had an arts round-up/

review column in the early editions

and was a street-seller

 

He doesn’t have a computer

so doesn’t see the on-screen IT.

He’s corresponded

with Lawrence Ferlinghetti

since the middle-sixties

and they still do by postal mail.

 

Jeff Cloves