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 […]
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 […]
four in the morning here, noon there no longer night, not yet morning disrupted circadian rhythm suspends me between two continents severed by an ocean. No-Man’s Land – that surreal stretch of urban pavement width of Brandenburg Gate within shadows of construction cranes, skeletons of skyscrapers erupt like tectonic plates from Potsdamer Platz. like a […]
shimmering green-blue, emeralds cut into sapphires white caps rise in gusts, undulating heat receding glacier clings to rock overhang tree line advances – a mirage of creeping forward. “Pas trop chaud, pas trop chaud,” father placates offspring, shrouded from head to foot in trousers, long-sleeved shirts, visored caps approach water’s edge avec trepidation. As if […]
panorama of jagged boulders confronts me, jars me into denial I don’t fathom that I’m passing through a graveyard nor grieve the shattered bodies of whole families, uprooted homes entombed by a landslide of limestone. like an affliction, the mountain hovers incessantly over my shoulder when I walk I can’t help but stare as when […]
