Almost (Poem and Photographs)

Almost

(Near 92 Champs-Élysées, Paris)

Thomas Jefferson lived here

And slept here, it is rumored,

With a slave (not commemorated).

But wait, there’s more!

Corporal Robert Birlinger died here

Just two hours before Paris’ liberation.

The fireman turned soldier

Dared to cross

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Leading a squad to fight

Blazes and German snipers.

Always a bad combination.

He almost made it.

Shot in the leg, he

Gave up too much blood

For France,

While those who could help him

Were pinned down.

Some critics of Birlinger's small plaque

Tell a less heroic story:

A tank shell simply

Blew him apart.

But this all avoids the essential question:
Just before Corporal Birlinger died here,

Had he read the plaque above

What later would be his,
And realized that

Thomas Jefferson always

Made it across the street?

                   -- Si Dunn



From the forthcoming book of poems and photographs by Si Dunn:
The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower
(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.)