Julian the Apostate Proclaimed Emperor Near Notre Dame Cathedral

      Julian the Apostate

Proclaimed Emperor Near

   Notre Dame Cathedral

Mais où sont les neiges d’antan! ~ François Villon

In 1952 Jean wrote his first

Great opus.  Barraqué of Notre Dame

Became the lover with a champagne thirst

For Foucault.  After that, Jean knew no calm

Except what wine could bring.  ‘Sonata for

Piano’ still remains.  That summer, though,

Is gone.  Where is the heat they knew before

That warm embrace, the heat without a glow?

Where is the heat and sweat of yesteryear,

When passion dissipates the paltry night

Before great love began?  A hormone’s leer

Turned choirboy’s throat into an acolyte

In Aphrodite’s temple.  Thus, the loss

Of kissless hours became a lukewarm dross.