This poem is taken from PN Review 148, Volume 29 Number 2, November - December 2002.

Two Poems

Patrick McGuinness

The Belgiad

Caesarean state:
every roadsign a mirror
every town a suburb

            *

Magritte's Saturn: all rings and no planet

the ever-provisional
coastline dreaming of sea

            *

Maigret's Liège stands in for itself
its anonymous crimes
sweepings from the poorhouse floor

Charleroi's slow factories turn like the Ferris
wheel in The Third Man

            *

        Louvain, Gand, Anvers
river-cities face to face with themselves
        Leuven, Gent, Antwerpen

Bruges one long aftermath, held breath
...

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