The Slant of Afternoon Light

by Arlene Geller (East Petersburg, PA)

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.

—Leonard Cohen

Your palpable need to touch 

your long-missed father

led us both 

to touch history.

I never wanted to set foot 

in Warsaw or Krakow, 

Budapest or Prague.

(Never wanted to be near Germany.)

But drawn by age 

and fading opportunities, 

we overcame our individual 

and collective fears.

We journeyed to places immersed 

in histories unfathomably 

sorrowful, unfathomably rich—  

we will never be the same.

We let the light in.

You now hold images, 

memories that were always

just beyond your reach.

Arlene Geller’s collection of prose poems, The Earth Claims Her, is available at Plan B Press. Her second poetry collection, Hear Her Voice, is available at Kelsay Books Hear Her Voice on Kelsay Books and Amazon Hear Her Voice on Amazon.  

Author’s note: This poem was written after an intense Eastern European trip last year. My husband’s father came to the United States from Poland. Throughout our 45-year marriage, my husband, Hank, has longed for a connection to the father who died when Hank was only 7 years old. The early loss has been an undercurrent for so long that I thought it time to visit at least the country where my father-in-law was born.