Fishman on the table like Ducal rights
for later, with Belgium sausage
& the onion costs petrifies the hands
nevermind show me Manneken Pis
beheaded in the garden pond
blanket weed dissolved ketje chains
in the heart Passementerie buttons
blue silk lampas, embellished
silver & gold thread
white gloves strange
hybrid shrine
where cultural memory is housed
flowers in the jug on a city street
unstolen on Avenue Louise, the trouble
with the underclass plebiscites
from castrum to didaem Château
remember The European Federation
Bomzhes, the Polyarchies
remember the wool meadows in rain sodden
remember Endland folly hardened &
fallen off again to red faces
EU umbrellas stalked in façades
like bitter tithes
this rapid transport system
is plastic fresh its wrapper hidden
in the columns the
Hill of Tears, runs down inside
corner pavilions, down Louis XV-style
bluestone doorways
dendrochronological big ladle
takes the Stoofvlees to my mouth
adopted Batavian ears,
no one keeps old customs
like a peasant.
