This is the story of a man

marked by a childhood image

The violent scene that upset him

and whose meaning

he was to grasp only years later

took place on the Grand Pier of Orly

a few years

before the outbreak of world war 3

Parents take their children to Orly

On Sunday to watch the departing planes

On this particular Sunday

the child whose story

we’re about to tell

would long remember the frozen sun

setting at the end of the deck

and a woman’s face

nothing distinguishes memories

from ordinary moments

only later do they become memorable

by the scars they leave

this face which was to be the only image

from peacetime to survive the war

he wondered for a long time if he had

really seen it or if he had invented this moment

of gentleness to counter the moments of

madness which was going to follow

The sudden roar, the woman’s gesture

the crumpling body and the cries of the crowd

blurred by fear

only later did he realize that he had

seen a man dying

Soon afterwards,

Paris was destroyed.