Odessa, Mon Amour

Your coffee houses

the music that constantly

is in the air in normal times

is hushed for now, while

civilizations come again

with their guns and bombs

to interrupt your millennial

poise. You will be one of those

last to go, a center of reality

not easily ignored, like Kyoto,

Berkely, Prague, Ann Arbor,

Ste. Petersburg, Tepoztlan,

Goa, Selida Colorado, 

We will lift whatever drink

is left to you.