Saturday, April 21, 2012

Convenience Store




















A living man, a cunning man

whose curiosity, dispassion --

the putative crime of gawking

surreptitiously from the aisle of plastic knives --


I wondered whether she,

clearly from Africa, was dragging her leg

because of a question put strongly

because of an impatience about something at stake.


You know, in the old days -- harried from the shtetl,

railed forth from formal schooling at Berlin -- 

they stood footsore in the camp dust, soon barbered

of their long locks afforded for the dolls of lucky girls.


And cunning men, tired of their passion

in the afterhours of exquisite music and talk

of the freeing-up of humankind,

connived efficiencies unthought-of regarding skin.


.


2 comments:

  1. Oh this is powerful. I wonder about the writing Anne Frank might have done, had she lived.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tess,

    I've been remiss entering and reading the blog. Thank you for the sensitive response!

    TF

    ReplyDelete