The Loneliest Mademoiselle

I turned into a Chinaman
to be a stranger to your sailor’s voice,
to be a smuggler somewhere
you could not mail your shadow to.

I hear you still bleed in taxis,
and give all your lovers your favourite disease�
or do you spend entire evenings in lobbies,
the loneliest mademoiselle?

I thought I heard you whispering,
Let’s not take our medicine.
We managed to die a little together,
so don’t come to me with your fear of parkades.

Are you scratching new faces,
and starving them into a semblance of me,
or just charming the lights blue on the grand boulevards,
the loneliest mademoiselle?

The loneliest mademoiselle.