300 steps each way, the narrow 
inside passage corkscrews up 
with occasional little alcoves 
where an old man can stop 
to catch his faltering breath 
without causing delay for others. 
Once there, the effort evaporates. 
It is as though I’ve risen into the 
sky on clouds formed from ancient 
stone and timbers lighter than air. 

Looking out over Paris, like a god, 
all at once, the combination of view 
and the climb weakens my legs, 
leaves me intoxicated, delusional. 
Satisfied, I never want to leave 
this perch, I want to stay on the 
edge of the dome, gazing across 
the city and all the people, an 
omnipotent eye seeing everything. 
Then I’ll order a pizza, delivered, 
try to determine the tip I’d need 
to promise to get some hearty 
Parisian kid to bring it up to me. 

Looking down on la Tour Eiffel 
reaching below me, scratching 
at the low sky, at la Défense 
crouching on a distant hill, 
amplifying l’Arc de Triomphe, 
past and present co-existing. 
A sweeping range the eye may 
travel, explosion of image, of 
inspiration born from this sight 
now lodged in my mind, in my 
heart, in these words. Am I 
hallucinating? Or falling in love 
with an entire city at once? 

M. J. Arcangelini

(born 1952, Pennsylvania) has resided in northern California since 1979. He is the author of eight published collections, most recently the full-length Pawning My Sins (Luchador Press, 2022), and the chapbooks Fierce Kisses (Rebels & Squares Press, 2024) and Hooking Up (Pure Sleaze Press, 2025). His work is published extensively in both print and online venues and more than a dozen anthologies, and has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize.

[For additional details including links to his books, see the poet’s extended bio at his occasional blog, Omniverous.]

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ WHO ARE YOU? by M. J. Arcangelini in Trailer Park Quarterly (Volume 16, August 2025)

⚡ M. J. Arcangelini reads three poems from his book A Quiet Ghost (Luchador Press, 2020) on 2 November 2022, the tenth anniversary of his open-heart surgery: “Expiration Date”; “Endless Road”; and “How the Heart Speaks”

⚡ Shauna Dies Repeatedly by Arcangelini in Trailer Park Quarterly (Volume 11)

⚡ Endless War in Pandemic of Violence Anthology I: Poets Speak (2021, North of Oxford)

⚡ Untitled 1951-52 by Arcangelini in The Ekphrastic Review (14 November 2017), after Clyfford Still’s painting PH-968

⚡ Frida and Diego, 1931 in The Ekphrastic Review (21 November 2017), after the painting by Frida Kahlo

⚡ M. J. Arcangelini on a Humid Night Under a Half Moon, an interview by Rebecca Samuelson in The Write Stuff: LitSeen (8 September 2016)