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the war poet
by Jim Bennett

the file contains poems
scratched in a neat hand
on war weary paper;

Berlin laid out in words
from Brandenburg Gate
and Chancellery to
Friedrichstrasse
and the Wintergarten
the 20's remembered
in lines stretched out
across the page

the trip to Liverpool
to visit his brother
the baker
walking to the Albert dock
seeing the great ships
on the Mersey
sail off to serve an Empire

Austrian summers
fruit and flies
dancing and singing
friends and love
all in poems
brought to life
scratched in a neat hand

but no mention of war
or a final solution
no Kristallnacht
no burning of the Reichstag
and in the heat haze
of summer
the words of the war poet
from Braunau on the Inn
are locked away
for posterity



First published in Parameter Magazine

 

 


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