In November 2015 the Paris terrorist attacks moved me to tears, and compelled me to write this piece. I discovered that rhyming French and English together is difficult because the sounds don't quite fit; so I've ended up with some 'half rhymes' and 'near rhymes'. But I needed them to help me remember the places where so many had died and so many others had been maimed at the hands of maniacs. This poem is a conversation of sorts, whereas beneath the violence lies the fact that there is no dialogue between the fanatics and their victims. I wonder where justice lies.

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…Friday’, he said, ‘I went to the match 

with some friends, but we couldn’t get in. 

We’d stopped for a while before we got there, 

at Le Petit Cambodge on Rue…

By Steve Sholl