Montparnasse
sits in silence
as Hemingway scribbles
alone at Le Dôme Café.
On our fourth glass
of mother’s milk
he coughs
and in an expansive arc
his cigar
inscribes a trail
describing
the broken barricades
before us,
as we watch
the green fairy dancing
Dom Perignon
along the Left Bank.
We hear the bells toll
but nobody questions
for whom.
© 2020 Joshua J. Smith
Author’s Note
Death in the Afternoon, also called the Hemingway or the Hemingway Champagne, is a cocktail made up of Absinthe (the green fairy) and Champagne, invented by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway’s original instructions were: “Pour one jigger Absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”