For Tourists & Armies

One way to draw France is in scallops: Dunkirk to Brest, Brest to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, The imperceptible stone sag of certain dolmens over the Pyrenees between Saint-Jean & Banyuls-sur-Mer Then, to Nice Nice, skirting the Alps to Lauterbourg From Lauterbourg back to where you began For the meticulous, the additions of Cherbourg, Toulon, & even Le Havre, Maybe Givet Yours is a green diorama It contains several kilowatts of sun, a superabundance of flowers Men dress like they are perpetually on their way to a funeral White people, their splotch-parchment cheeks All those roast chickens, none with the fat trimmed from the rump