“That Madeleine Moment”

by Al McClimens

I think I can remember reading A La Recherche

du Temps Perdu, in twelve volumes, borrowed

over a lost festive season from the public library.

The staff congratulated me when I returned

the last book. But this was in another country

and a long, long time ago. 

                                               I’ve forgotten every

sentence now so it’s funny that a casual dropped

phrase can take me back, how the sunlight when

it catches the yellow tulips on the windowsill

on a day late in December can flip a synapse

until I’m standing on Circular Key, just off the ferry,

the bridge festooned with lights and the boat

churning the water, carol singers on the quayside

and the words snagged on the lump in my throat.

Al McClimens is a drain on the economy and a danger to the language. If you must read his poems wear gloves and self-isolate. That said his collection The Other Infidelities (Pindrop Press, 2021) is actually quite good and well worth a look. But see above.