Parisian Reverie

Like all young struggling artists,

I’m going to move to Paris —

I’m going to rent an attic studio

& become a true bohemian

— I’m going to dress in black &

philosophize in French cafés

— I’m going to read the classics

in Sylvia Beach’s bookshop

Like Hemingway, I’ll spend

my weekends in museums

& learn to write like Cézanne

painted

Like the flâneurs, I’ll roam the city

& hang around the Latin Quarter

I’ll attend the opéra & ballet,

I’ll go to jazz clubs & cabarets

Maybe then I’ll make great art &

learn to live with panache & flair

As all the greats say: If you can’t make

it in Paris, you can’t make it anywhere!

Jeanna Ní Ríordáin is a translator from West Cork, Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Quarryman, Drawn to the Light Press, Swerve, New Isles Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Burrow, and Otherwise Engaged Literature and Arts Journal. Find her on Instagram @wordy89.