"A Unified Berlin" by Ann Townsend

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend March 8, 2019   A Unified Berlin   Ann Townsend

The Junior Minister waved a hand                           toward the courtyard where, he said,                                        Goering's private lion used to live.                            With him we climbed Parliament's steps,   walls pockmarked still with bullet holes.                           In the conference room the Social Democrats                                        passed trays of petit fours and coffee.                            We were perhaps insufficient, he said.   His voice, uninflected: they shipped                          my father to Stalingrad. Forty days                                        and dead. In the room,                            the transcriptionist, the translator,   and security stationed against                          the wall. Some time passed.                                        In East Germany, he said, at least                            it was always terrible. Bad luck, he said,   to be on that side of the wall. Even                          the apples were poison. We were                                        to understand this was a little joke.                             He brought the teacup to his mouth,   but did not drink. His fingernails                          were tapered and very clean.                                        When you are the victim, he said,   it doesn't matter who is killing you.            Copyright © 2019 Ann Townsend. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "'A Unified Berlin' emerged from a Mellon Foundation-sponsored trip to Berlin and Nicosia, Cyprus, where a group of American writers and scholars explored two cities broken by war and other kinds of rupture. Our team met with politicians, artists, workers and activists and heard their stories. This is one man's story." —Ann Townsend   Ann Townsend's most recent collection is Dear Delinquent (Sarabande Books, 2019). She directs the creative writing program at Denison University, and lives in Granville, Ohio. Poetry by Townsend   Dear Delinquent (Sarabande Books, 2019) "Ask the Locals" by Monica Sok "Fugue of Death" by Paul Celan "Defiant" by Patricia Spears Jones March Guest Editor: Maggie Smith   Thanks to Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Smith about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038