In a Bar in Brussels, by Yvonne Baker

Not to Be Reproduced, by Rene Magritte (Belgium) 1937

In a Bar in Brussels 

René, I thought I saw you yesterday. 
You were wearing your bowler hat 
and entertaining the barmaid 
with the same old mirror trick. 
Did you tell that joke about your pipe, 
give her a picture as a keepsake?

Black-suited men that once drizzled 
from the clouds, have gone, and places 
we knew have faded into dreams.  
All you left me was your little dog 
and a bottle painted like a summer sky. 

O René, it would be good to see you again.

Yvonne Baker

Yvonne Baker has been published in numerous magazines, including Orbis, South Bank Poetry, Artemis, Acumen and The Frogmore Papers. Her poems have been included in several anthologies. Emma Press — The Sea, 2016 Second light — Fanfare, 2015 Paper Swans — The Chronicles of Eve 2016, The Best of British 2017, The Pocket Poetry Book of Love 2018, The Pocket Poetry Book of Weddings 2018, Poetry Space — She has recently had a poem accepted for an anthology about the lockdown. She has had poems commended twice in Second Light Competition. 

The Treachery of Images, by Rene Magritte (Belgium) 1929

Golconda, by Rene Magritte (Belgium) 1953