In Częstochowa

to Grazina

Once upon a time
When the river Warta
Ran thru the town of Częstochowa

a woman stood on the tips of her toes
alone in a vast room
meticulously arranging her medical supplies.

There are things one remembers from childhood—
a picture of a Scotch Terrier (on a writing pad)
a yellow-haired girl sweeping a hearth (in a book)

or (a photograph): a toddler (me) pulling a violin out of a tin can—
more real than what we say “actually happened”
and so it was that, reaching above the dialysis machine,

silence was her accompanist, and she, rising and falling
betwen moon and undertow, turning
in her banks, over rocks, measure after measure—

Listen you—
You in the powder blue—
Cinderella, laughing,

bringing the waters of the Warta
here intact from Częstochowa
Dei gratia nova:

© Dan Goorevitch, 2003