// creative //
Spring 2016
when I wake up
Charlotte Rauner
in Paris, the world is at its funeral
messiah or utopia or something
better than what we have now
seems to be lost, I wake, we are
barely surviving morning coffee
my family is rumored to live
laying in beds in the Roman republic
the Bay of Naples even Los Angeles
let’s forget about France
if the seasons permitted
you could grow behind your knees
an Arch de Triomphe a Montmartre Carousel
we could go to the movies after
the lampposts have gunshot wounds
we should make out in a different park
or a different city, let’s break up - that seems right
we’re advised against Paris
though, I intend to be an expatriate
like Gertrude Stein, come into my salon
let’s get back together bring your art,
your wives, babies, anything I’ll pour milk in your tea
while we wait for what’s next
messiah or utopia or something
better than what we have now
seems to be lost, I wake, we are
barely surviving morning coffee
my family is rumored to live
laying in beds in the Roman republic
the Bay of Naples even Los Angeles
let’s forget about France
if the seasons permitted
you could grow behind your knees
an Arch de Triomphe a Montmartre Carousel
we could go to the movies after
the lampposts have gunshot wounds
we should make out in a different park
or a different city, let’s break up - that seems right
we’re advised against Paris
though, I intend to be an expatriate
like Gertrude Stein, come into my salon
let’s get back together bring your art,
your wives, babies, anything I’ll pour milk in your tea
while we wait for what’s next
// CHARLOTTE RAUNER is a freshman in Barnard College and the Deputy Creative Editor for The Current. She can be reached at cer2170@barnard.edu.