Fishman on the table like Ducal rights
for later in the afternoon
with Belgium sausage & onion
the Carrefour cost petrifies the hands
nevermind show me Manneken Pis again
beheaded in the garden pond outside
blanket weeds dissolved to lake green
ketje chains in the heart
Passementerie buttons, blue silk lampas,
embellished in silver & golden thread
the white gloves pressed strange
hybrid shrine
where cultural memory is housed
flowers in a jug on a city street
unstolen Avenue Louise, the trouble
with the underclass is
remembering plebiscites
from castrum to didaem Châteaus
hanging you out a window,
remembering The European Federation
the Bomzhes to the Polyarchies
remembering wool meadows Endland after
EU umbrellas stalked in façades
like bitter tithes Tourist traps
this rapid transport system
is plastic fresh its wrapper hidden
in the columns
in the Hill of Tears,
running down inside corner pavilions,
down inside Louis XV-style
bluestone doorways
all the while dendrochronological big ladle
takes the Stoofvlees to my mouth
I’ve adopted Batavian ears,
for no one keeps old customs
like a peasant.
