Poetry Pick

BERLIN RESTORED

by G.W. Down
Ontario, Canada


We trundled through the unity
Of the city once divided.

The man with the Prussian name
And the war-torn heritage,
Who was bemused to be older than The Wall,
Wove tales of coping
And childhood memories of west-east transit
To visit father's family
And make pilgrimage
To the cathedral sundered from his home.

Now it is easy to crisscross
Past the artists' easel remnant
And the double cobblestone reminder
Of the city's grave bisection.

Checkpoint Charlie is flagged still
With the faces of opposing warriors,
But in the former eastern sector
Buildings sport the faces of Before and After;
After beams in the freshness of western minting
While Before blinks from behind scaffolding
And smiles to know that it
In turn in time will be After.

There are few monuments
To the murderous plotting
Of the ruined ruinous,
No marker for a fated bunker,
Yet we came at length to
The plaza of the burned books —

And there it was
All before us —

An empty library
Bereft of lore and wisdom
And a clear shelf waiting to receive
Its store of old and new.

From Tower Poetry, Vol. 52 #1


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