Published in Overland Issue 208 Spring 2012 Main Posts Old Europe (2) Adam Aitken You don’t need to queue at the entrance but then so dark your captions now unreadable since the children left. Come dine with me in a dead café. Let’s dance in my old Turkish residence lined with uncut books where a cigar accords with taste and the chocolatier snores. You may need to sidestep the urine. Rémy flew home in a djellaba the armless no glory veteran the pigeons don’t bother with the bread the accordion’s sellotaped to wheeze a tune. The Romanies sell puppies to lovesick tourists but the light is what we dream, Saron’s scything searchlight, the Eiffel Tower a blingy earring on the ear of Europa. In the courtyard of a hôtel particulier she showed me the seventeenth century rainwashed and dishabille with a horse in harness and a Russian lover who won’t spy for money or love. A warning: the shih tzu twins are locked in patrolling my millionaire terrace, the road a crime scene below, a day-for-night with Citroen and café shoot-out. You might have to step over the body. I only come here for a summer for language, macaroons, delicious cod. Good thing Cheryl got the handbag she wanted she’s so persistent we filmed it. Adam Aitken Adam Aitken has published four main collections of poetry and other pamphlets. His latest is Eighth Habitation (Giramondo Publishing). He teaches at the University of Technology, Sydney. More by Adam Aitken Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 11 November 202211 November 2022 Main Posts On the last day of Subscriberthon, our amazing online editor gives you one last (very good) reason to subscribe Editorial team What's in store for the last day of Subscriberthon? First published in Overland Issue 228 10 November 202210 November 2022 Main Posts On the second-last day of Subscriberthon, our favourite editor-duo give you reason #1002 to subscribe to Overland Editorial team What's in store for the second-last day of Subscriberthon?