Montparnasse

There are never any suicides in the quarter among people
one knows
No succesful suicides.
A Chinese boy kills himself and is dead.
(they continue to place his mail in the letter rack
at the Dome)
A Norwegian boy kills himself and is dead.
(no one knows where the other Norwegian boy has gone)
They find a model dead
alone in bed and very dead.
(it made almost unbearable trouble for the concierge)
Sweet oil, the white of eggs, mustard and water, soap suds
and stomach pumps rescue the people one knows.
Every afternoon the people one knows can be found at
the cafe.

Ernest Hemingway, Paris, 1922