three cities
Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement of the mid-nineteen sixties, Three Cities chronicles the journey of twenty-three-year-old law student John Carter who one fall semester abandons the Catholic Church, drops out of law school, and leaves his job as an attendant in a detention center for juvenile males who have run afoul of the law. Plagued by the possibility of re-activation by the Marine Corps, questions of what justice and character might be, what they might require of him in twentieth century America, and shadowed by the anomalies of memory, identity and consciousness, on a five-year plan to reassemble his life, he moves through three cities, St. Louis, Chicago and Iowa City, with a host of fringe and a few not so fringe historical, scientific, and literary characters.
Now available in paperback and ebook three cities
Wayne Lanter, 1937-2023
He's in Paris
When these days are done and I am gone
Into the wilderness the blizzard of tomorrows
Or shortly after for those that miss me
(And for a moment there may be a few)
Do not erect a monument or herm
At the crossroads I abandoned
Leave the markings and misery of time to others
But when they ask--if they must know--say only
"He's in Paris"
But tell them also not to look for me
At rue Saint André des Arts or on the Quai
Paris extends as far as the mind can see
And after all these years
Others may be easily mistaken for me
More than that do not grieve my leaving
Or imagine I might be alone or weeping
Sunny mornings I shall ride a boat
Past Jardin du Trocadero
Toward the sea at noon and afternoons
I'll be in Luxembourg among the statues
Resting on Flaubert's cenotaph
Or sitting in the rain with Amedeo and Anna
Beneath his oversized black umbrella
The softness of their distant voices chanting Verlaine
She will be holding a single red rose
Night time will be best of all
I'll follow the moon along Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Pausing briefly to converse with Danton
And mingle in the shadows
Beneath the canopies of cafés and trees
Jean-Paul and Simone are still there
As are Descartes and Picasso's Apollinaire
Though you need not look for me
So if they ask say "He's in Paris for the duration"
And though there seems no reason to it
If necessary to oblige empty considerations
Assure them that I will be in touch
