Number Four Lipow Strasse

Number Four Lipow Strasse

Hey, please take a good look

at all the graffiti

covered ghetto walls over

here, where it

seems that both Schindler’s

broken heart

and his conscience still have

     value and purpose ..

Oh’ and please do take a peek

at least, at number

four Lipow Strasse, while you

   are passing through ..

You will note it’s still heaving,

as much now

  as it ever did, back in the day ..

When ladies, with

their old, faux ermine, would

pound these

all too familiar streets, late at

  night until morning ..

Some folk, are now saying it’s

too damp, cold

   and dark in there, but get this ..

It’s still a far cry

from the hovels that pretend

to be hotels

falling down and into canals

    by the waterfront ..

And anyway, the various scents

that come from

inside Café Alchemia are just as

inviting today

as they have ever been since

at least, the mid

sixteenth century .. and now,

on looking back,

I recall it was somewhere up

there, in a small

third floor apartment that she

  turned to face me

   and said, no you don’t look old ..

You just look tired

and a bit worn, that’s all, much

like this old quilt

we both lay under and these

torn curtains

and the nineteen-thirties flock

wallpaper we try to

burn to keep warm throughout

the long nights of

another lonely winter or until

we are buried

    and eventually become liberated ..