Market in Marseilles by Stephen Harvey | Poetry

Poetry – Issue 11 | January 2011

Market in Marseilles

by Stephen Harvey

A girl half my age propositioned me
Along the Vieux-Port late last night. She spoke
In French but got her point across. I’m broke,
I shrugged, though my pockets bulged, and she

Seemed relieved. I looked for the bastard behind
It all. No one. Then three stories above the ground
That same girl with thirty years and pounds
Looked out—voilà. Daybreak now, boats lined

Along the pier, fresh catch caught, and her daughter
Who knows where. Fishermen clean their treasure,
Live squid flopping, an octopus in the measure,
The smell of dead fish floating in the water.

Stephen Harvey explores the overlap of poetry and medicine as an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University (getting sleepy yet?). He travels with his wife every chance he gets.

Read our current issue, Issue 11 | January 2011:

Literary Bohemian

Poetry – Issue 11 | January 2011