a neighbourly gesture?
That summer Mama sent us to Anna’s house to scrub pots
did I help?
I couldn’t have
I would remember
And not rely upon the memory of my sister, Teresa.
I recall Mama cringe when hearing them say
“they must be Jews or communists to have gotten out of there.”
The new Polish school principal was labeled a communist
Anna and […]
airplane propeller whirled round and round
formenting turbulence and such a din
we could hardly bid our father farewell
one of the first to return through Checkpoint Charlie
to homeland occupied still.
German shepherds on platform
collared to black uniformed border patrol
sheet metal obscured view of Potsdammer Platz
passport photo crossed-referenced to father
commanded to remove glasses
stand aside
like so many predeceasing him in […]
He brings her flowers, pinched
from the widow’s window
box, takes her
away from her books, her thoughts,
to walk in the city at night
when the streets are slick
with rain, streaking
lights from the shops, the chic
bars, the traffic, the fountains.
She cannot hold him. His face
breaks and slides away
in her dreams. He appears
without warning, sweeps
her up in his brief
obsessions. When […]
The landscape of your sorrow: a house
fallen, in the dark. You follow him
longingly, your knees in his footprints.
Loose connections, a workable love. You
need a fall back position to memory
that is split, tiled, broken; like satellite
transmissions. The winds pick up gently
and the landscape passes by. You turn
to catch a flash of colour, the […]
Confucius surely has a saying apropos
to someone who loses a wedding band
walking or jogging through the park.
A LOST poster shouts the sorry
missing ring news from the pathside
waste container where every passing
walker is compelled to read it.
Oh-oh, someone’s in deep do-do,
I think as I read the pathetic confession.
My first emotional twinge is pity,
as I amble past […]
