At the Gare Bruselles-Midi
Narrated by Bill Wolak
New Jersey
At The Gare Bruselles-Midi
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Two people saying goodbye
but not saying it
Saying nothing
in the station at noon
in the gare Bruxelles-Midi
Not a word between them
They’re both looking straight ahead
Their hands are clasped
on the café table
all four
hands together
as in a children’s hand game
Their hands are big
The man and the woman are not so big
They are grey and green
Middle-aged
Nondescript but distinguished
Even their skins seem grey
Il a l’air d’un petit fonctionnaire
a little bureaucrat somewhere
It is he who is taking the train
Perhaps back to his wife in France
The woman here is a little younger
but far from young
Maybe he’s French she’s Belge
a wartime romance perhaps
Now forty years after
they’re still meeting
across borders
Their four hands like the four wings of two doves
folded together
unable to fly away
from each other
Very capable hands
capable of a lot of things
but not of saying goodbye
not even of waving goodbye
Their hands are mute as mouths
He stands up now
He picks up
his heavy valise
He stands there still
She does not look up
He keeps standing there
looking nowhere
Then he walks away
All at once he walks away
around the corner out of sight
carrying his heavy valise
and his heavy briefcase
She does not look after him
She does not turn her head
She stares straight ahead
without blinking
A fly
walks
around
on the
table