Overheard in the Bistro

 Tuesday in the Pub means time for Poetics ~ Dora is hosting today ~ the focus ~ Dialogue in poetry. Dial it in ~ make it count! Could not resist the allure of Collins and Cohen.

Setting the scene: Billy Collins and Leonard Cohen

A table in the corner of their favorite Manhattan bistro

Billy ~ elbows propped on the table, chin in hands

ready to devour his pastrami on rye

across from him ~ folding his napkin like a hallelujah origami

Cohen ~ "come now, you can't eat a poem." 

Billy, with a wide grin "Forget about it ~ this moment? ~ IS the poem!"

[ the cashier knowing who they were ~ blinked twice

possibly composing her own haiku ]  

Cohen ~ "sure but mine will last a lifetime." 

Billy gesturing wildly with a pickle "yours are the kind of lyrics that sit quietly in a room  ~ asking for permission to blink."

Cohen, reigning in his irritation ~ "and yours are like furniture you throw out a window, calling it jazz!"

"I AM jazz!" Billy responded ~ tapping a rhythm on the table ~ "I once wrote three sonnets while riding the C train in rush hour ~ nursing a hangover."

Cohen, leaning in with deadly calm ~ "I once wrote a villanelle so moving it made a tulip CRY."

"So what" from Collins ~ "Tulips are suckers for repetition!"

[ finally ~ the cashier asked ~ "do either of you want a bag? " ]

Billy nodded ~ "for all this literary baggage? ~ YES!"

Leonard winked, laughed ~ and tipped her $50 ~ ~ plus a few line breaks!