For the Poetry Smash Week day 1: Rebellion
“Do you think this is going to be it?”
Jean Prouvaire is sprawled on Bahorel’s oriental settee, his long legs dangling over the edge and his hands crossed on his chest in a manner reminiscent of a revenant taking his rest. Shredded paper litters the floor around him like a summer snow.
It’s little past four in the morning. The smell of hashish has all but dissipated, replaced by the clammy promise of rain to come: the grey stripe of sky visible from the open window is heavy with foreboding. Jean Prouvaire thinks he can smell other things in the rain too. Darker things.
Somewhere, a chorus of birds is greeting the approaching dawn. Summer morning waits on no one.
“Hm?” says Bahorel from somewhere on the floor.
“Tomorrow – or rather today, that is.” Jean Prouvaire turns himself over for a better look at his companion, nearly toppling off the settee in the process. “The funeral that is to be our cradle. The trumpet call of apocalypse to welcome the new world. Can it be that you and I may yet live to see such a thing?”
Bahorel hums again, tapping his fingers against the floor; a sure sign that he is giving the question due consideration. On the settee, Jean Prouvaire smiles to himself. There are few things Bahorel takes so seriously, and he likes being an exception to the rule. He likes that very much.
“I don’t think that’s how it goes,” Bahorel says eventually. “I think there’s always another fight.”
Jean Prouvaire furrows his brows. “You don’t think – another stolen revolution?”
“Maybe, or maybe not.” Bahorel pushes himself up on his elbows, warming to the subject. “Let’s say it shall be a barricade today and hotel de ville tonight. Tomorrow, the messieurs the bankers will corral some fool of a marquis, or some doctrinaire and prop him up as a president, or a consul, whatever you like. Then if they have their way, they’ll spend the next ten years arguing over how to best cheat mademoiselle Liberty out of the rights of a citizen. Mark my words, we will yet need to bash some heads in her honour.”
“And we will,” responds Jean Prouvaire. “It is a mistake to think of the future as a destination where one might arrive and sit down; it can only ever be experienced as a journey. We might yet share the destiny of Sisyphos.”
“That’s right!” says Bahorel. “And all that is assuming that our fledgling Utopia won’t be saddled with another Louis-Philippe in a phrygian cap. No my friend – If we must rest, we will rest in the grave. I don’t think this old world is yet done with revolutions.”
“And thus the struggle continues,” murmurs Jean Prouvaire. There’s something a bit bleak about this prospect and something a bit hopeful too; a burden of immense destiny fully appraised. It makes him think of the revolutionaries past and future, connected by invisible threads, like vast constellations of which no one can see the full extent. He makes a mental note to share that thought with Enjolras, should there be time.
“And what do you think?” Bahorel asks, interrupting his reverie. He has pulled himself into a sitting position, leaning against the settee and observing Jean Prouvaire with a strangest expression, wild and indescribably gentle. “Shall we become a cautionary tale of moderate journalists and fussy patriarchs? Or is this yet a night of the poets?”
Perhaps it is the lingering influence of hashish, or the sleepless night, or clarity that comes from the proximity of the grave: Jean Prouvaire, gripped by inexplicable understanding, slides down to the floor and clasps his friend’s hands in his own. Presses his forehead against Bahorel’s for a long unsteady moment, before pulling back enough to meet the thoughtful lupine gaze.
“They will sing of us, Bahorel. Do not ask me how I know, but no mater what fate awaits us tomorrow, I promise they will sing of us for centuries to come.”