Eight Poems
by Esther Dischereit · 03/13/11
I crept beneath Berlin
and lived like a rat
from the drains of people
who sat around the table.
When the bells tolled
we cowered and winced
and held our Jewish ears
When the collection no longer tinkled
bread and milk sloshed from the stairway
which creaked beneath us one day
My face hungered after the sun
Draft between the floorboards
let me know August was hot and here
so it seemed three times June in March
Lying all crumpled on our beds
in suits and dresses and yellow knit waistcoats
we were ready to talk with books
A pounding of hard steps
went through our hands and heads
and we hid
behind the lid of His eye
One day we crept up the stairway
into my frenzied heart
for the final years
and how much harder it beat
careering after me to other countries
until I came home to my cellar
and was resolved.
