There is a heat haze
Across the narrow road the house has open windows but is obscured
In the park the dog casually eating leftovers
Workers stretched out in listless oblivion
...
January light
Sharp uncompromising in the frosty sun
Throwing up the outline skeleton trees
To stab at any warmth left within
...
Poplars At Auschwitz
Poplars
Memories of a Europe new to me then as a child
Other
Do we have poplars here?
Not like these tall elegant spears
In France
Breaking the sun into shafts of bright light
Dark shadows on dusty avenues
Hot in the spaces between the trees
As we walked too far to a villa
Then relief, lemonade
A child's grumbles forgotten instantly
Today we see the poplars emerge as the mist fades
Just before there seems only grey space with nothing at all in view
In transit to nowhere
Polish monotone films that never broke out of the greyness of flat landscapes
Yet there are hills here and green trees
Post war Poland in black and white because colour would betray the past
And now suddenly arrival, an intake of breadth
The trees in some parody of an avenue in a European town
Swaying a little in a touch of wind
Silence before the chaos of visitors not knowing where to go
Jettisoning bags that aren't allowed
Practicing in my head how to respond to images well known but not quite real
Leaving, there is a sharp crescent moon
Picking out the newly built homes between Auschwitz and Birkenau
And accenting the tops of infinite poplars with yellow light