Circle of Time
I used to
recognize Europe
Of course not
every country was the same
When I first
went there were deutschmarks, francs, lire
Bread was the
common currency: we bought it everywhere
And walked down
the street eating it out of sacks like cotton candy
All of the old
stuff was new to me
Together we
discovered the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, a corner of a cathedral
Where an
organist practiced
If hard-pressed
I would have to admit
That the grass
there was the same green
And the same sky
But in my
imagination if felt like different sunlight,
Even the
graffiti was different, more exotic
Once there, I
always longed to return
Since I first
visited there was a union, a coming
Together of
jigsaw countries, the map re-arranged
The bread
varied from place to place, but it was still incredible
Language became
the invisible border, separating
Yet folks
mostly understood each other
We went over
five or six times, never getting enough
It became a
solace for my soul during the Bush-Abu Greb years
A place where
Human Rights mattered, where
In the squares
protestors gathered at lunch to collect
signatures:
against capital punishment, solitary confinement, torture
In general
Europe seemed far more advanced, vastly more
Civilized
compared to America and its wars
But I’m
beginning to wonder: Is Europe different now?
The sunlight
has shifted into shadow
What about all
the stray dogs, sleeping cats
Will they
become afraid? Move away?
Move to the
right, the left? Jump a boat to Tunisia?
And what about
the Great War, the War to End all Wars—
And the Second
World War, will there be a new crusade?
In a future
alliance where will America stand? Perhaps
Against Germany
and with Turkey? And will the US and Russia fight
On the same
side once again.
Why are we back
here again?
Back to a
broken geography, to nationalism, fascism,
Absolute rule,
class wars, oligarchs, machine guns
In the parks,
stay off the grass.
In Bruges was a black comedy about hit men
Upsetting
everyday fairy-tale life
And now that
life is a black comedy, every day
There are hit
men.
Was it really
only 15 years ago we first visited Europe—and now
It is tearing
itself apart, and we, America
Are facing our
own identity crisis
For more on our travels in Europe, go to http://www.frostwriting.com/issues/article/the-european-schedule/
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| 2004 |
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