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War and Peace
Spring 2014   Vol. 30 #2
Spring 2014   Vol. 30 #2

Poems/Not Poems

Atlas

By Alla Poberesky

 
 

My father still screams some nights
And packs with him
A handkerchief, an apple, a hat, a small bag of nuts, a silver Swiss army pocket knife,
and a parachute
—always prepared, always ready

Anxiously he rocks from one foot
to the other
Foretelling the forecast, the outcome of the baseball game, politics, the state of Israel,
and the war

My father, just short of 5′ 7″
Is a giant
A gigantic giant
strong as Atlas
he carried my family across
state lines, countries, walls, laws, men and suits, swastikas, foreign languages, silences and sirens, cold floors, and roach filled rooms

he stood at the brink
of the world
washing windows on street corners
with homemade Windex
and crawled out of trains
and trenches
and passport checks
and death…

He bears arms, shame, guilt, fear, and wool sweaters
Whispering
“This ends with me”

and I used to think he could fly
all so I could one day say:
“Ya Americanca”

 

∞

 

From the Spring 2014 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 30, No. 2)
© 2014 Alla Poberesky

Topics

Family, Immigrants, PTSD, Survival, War


artist-image

Author

Alla Poberesky is meditation practitioner on the Buddhist path and a certified mindulness facilitator. A refugee who immigrated from the former Soviet Union with her family, she grew up in New York City and graduated from Syracuse University. She resides in Santa Monica, California.

Author

Alla Poberesky is meditation practitioner on the Buddhist path and a certified mindulness facilitator. A refugee who immigrated from the former Soviet Union with her family, she grew up in New York City and graduated from Syracuse University. She resides in Santa Monica, California.

artist-image
 
 
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