RIP Lieselotte Porter 1925-2018

 

another empty chair

another empty corner

only resurrection

assured this Easter morn

are my ghosts

who brokers the

introductions? I wonder

as my past collides

into my present

room made at

my grandmother’s

round kitchen table

for one more

they drink Maxwell House

drip, Cremora and cheap

cut glass sugar dish

forgotten on the

crowded flannel-backed

plastic tablecloth

colors faded, surface

cracked with age

most of my dead

drink their coffee black

does she pull out the

bottle of cheap vodka

she carries in her purse

offer it the others?

Tell us about yourself

they ask

she talks about

her childhood, young adulthood

in 1930s Germany

her Jewish friends

and neighbors

who disappeared in the night

never to be seen again

mandatory service

in Hitler’s Youth

Kristallnacht

her brother who died young

in the war

they listen respectfully

over mismatched mugs

and cigarettes

serve her cannolis

recommend the sfogliatelle

as endless after unfolds

 

© 2018 Christine Elizabeth Ray – All Rights Reserved