← v5n1, Spring 2006
Poetry · Volume 5, Number 1

Exile

Loneliness, you, Ovid, on the Black Sea, Pontus

Euxinus, year 8, exiled, imperial claim, for love,

Ars Amatoris, Nelly, 1940, safe in Sweden

From Nazis but not from die Blicke, glances,

Der Toten, of millions going up in black

Smoke, Joseph, 1972, you, safe, too, in U. S. A.,

“persona non grata in terra incognita,” behind

All of you, landscape, pines, lindens, aspens,

Those faces, most of all, language, “vix

Subeunt ipsi verba Latina mihi,” old words

“Rusty and stiff,” intoned (02/76) Russian

Verse, few understanding, sleeves rolled up,

Cigarette poised so carefully on filter beside,

Joseph, hand on shoulder, to shy student poet,

New room, new world, , emptiness,

“Don’t be,” exile’s best advice, “nervous.”