Charles Baudelaire and I Meet in the Oval Garden

Which windowpane are you beating your wings against today?
I am not as stubborn as you: I am flying straight into that delicious fire.

Buckets of bubbling tar and champagne await us at the Blue Chalet.
Do you skip like this because you have been invited into our hopping choir?

I am not as stubborn as you: I am flying straight into that delicious fire.
I thought you were going to the theater in your new cabriolet.

Do you skip like this because you have been invited into our hopping choir?
Yes, I do know the difference between a martini and a matinee.

I thought you were going to the theater in your new cabriolet.
They say that the latest strain hiding in the shadows is a yellow vampire.

Yes, I do know the difference between a martini and a matinee.
You have your subdivisions and high rises, while I have my dumpy shire.

They say that the latest strain hiding in the shadows is a yellow vampire.
Don’t worry—my ancestors are sewn up in overcoats and on full display.

You have your subdivisions and high rises, while I have my dumpy shire.
When it comes to curry and gin, I say: “Let’s wallow in Combray.”

Don’t worry—my ancestors are sewn up in overcoats and on full display.
Which windowpane are you beating your wings against today?

When it comes to curry and gin, I say: “Let’s wallow in Combray”
Buckets of bubbling tar and champagne await us at the Blue Chalet.

Copyright © 2022 by John Yau. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 19, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“‘Charles Baudelaire and I Meet in the Oval Garden’ is a pantoum, a Malaysian verse form that was first adapted by French poets, starting with Victor Hugo. Charles Baudelaire also wrote in this form. Structurally, a pantoum consists of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth line of each stanza becomes the first and third line of the following stanza. In my version, I wrote the poem in couplets while following the repetition. Formally, I was interested in the kinds of relationships I could establish between the first and second line of a couplet. I decided the poem had to contain rhymes, because they did it in French. The Oval Garden is, in my mind, adjacent to the White House. I am thinking about borders, tight-knit social groups, mobility, and exclusion.”
—John Yau