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how to buy bus tickets. she doesn’t know the boulange-
rie menu, nor how to crash around the city as i do with
minutes to spare between classes. she hasn’t spoken
French for thirty years. she isn’t sick, old or feeble—just
jet-laggedb— ut still I find myself needing to slow things
down and take time to care for my mother.
i didn’t want to change for her. i want her to speak
French with me and find instant comfort in these places
and people as I do, because my life keeps flying toward
me as normal: vivace!
Morning, andante. My mother awakens after her first
night in French sheets (in my bed—i won’t let her sleep
in my host brother’s vacant room, in the bed beneath his
bugle horns, mounted buck heads and the now truncated
head of Grandfather’s best hunting dog. Just imagine!)
Her first vision is thus not a furry head but an impatient
blonde one: “Bonjour, bonjour. Ça va?”
i’m already dressed—she stretches. “Any tea?”
“non, j’en ai pas.”
“Too early for French,” she groans.
“pourquoi? ok...we’ll swing by the boulangerie?”

with my roses i am riding not for one, but two. i’m
pedaling, breathing and steering for two, and when my
eyes stray to see all the colorful scenery i guiltily draw
them back to the road where they should be. i resent my
roses. Most roses come wrapped in shiny ribbon; mine
66 blue moon
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