I. Sestina: Café Spitz, 1964

by Kieran Fionn Murphy

The prim afternoon sun hid cloudily as a blue
tugboat barged the Rhine. Sophie, beside a Beatles–
haircut Irishman, nonchalantly tossed a wine glass
over her head when a German said Swiss daughters
couldn’t vote, Wahnsinn, and shameful state secrets
and smug Swiss men meant that nothing shocking

happened in Basel. Sophie’s glass shattered, shocking.
The waiter, balding, black–tied, wielding a blue–
handled–broom, understood how to sweep up secrets.
He approached on shards that crunched like beetles,
wondering who had raised such a daughter.
Professional, he first replaced her broken glass

saying, ‘It appears the lady dropped her glass.’
‘No,’ Sophie said. ‘I threw it. Isn’t that shocking?’
‘And will Ma’am do it again?’ ‘She’s not my daughter,’
said the German. ‘I might,’ said Sophie, crossing
blue–jeaned legs. ‘I understand,’ the waiter said. Cleaned. Beatles
tunes hummed from the Irishman. The two kept secrets.

It was due to Sophie’s parents they kept secrets —
no suitor suitable. Finbarr would slip out the glass
bedroom window, swan–silent, shoes in hand, Beatles
record under arm, when her folks stopped by. Shocking
them not an option. He loved cars, owned a brash blue
Hillman, sat in it as parents checked on daughter.

Back home, on Patrick’s Day, he sent their daughter
a fresh shamrock — could he return, make secrets?
Yes. He rode the ferry, car’s soft–top down, him blue–
capped in a bright red MG–TC. He tapped on her glass
window, and in Café Spitz unwrapped a shocking
fab new album, Hard Day’s Night, the Beatles.

Some time after, him black–suited like the Beatles,
they told Sophie’s parents to expect a granddaughter.
Future in–laws paled, felt ill, pronounced it ‘shocking,’
announced a hasty wedding, waved away their secrets.
Big bellied, Sophie swayed as the wind bucked the blue
ocean liner. Scherben bringen Glück? Yes. Broken glass

did bring luck in New York — Beatles charting, no more secrets,
a daughter, two sons. They sold natural medicines filled in glass
bottles, and, shocking, swapped a sleek Morgan for a Volvo in
blue.