Vignette Challenge: poems and discussion

Please have a look at the bells and whistles.

#14 (Re-write) -- Near the Fiddler's House, 1998

In Kazimierz buildings sit close
to cobbled streets which teemed
with tourists at noon, but now
are empty save two pensioners

in a courtyard, shuffling similarly
white headed and bowed, a pair
of old watches ticking toward
one another and winding down.

Meeting is a blessing--it shows
in their outstretched hands
and delighted pink faces; the mother
tongue is sweet in their mouths.

May you live one hundred years

is no small wish from survivors,
one who sailed to an uncertain dream
of nationhood and one who stayed
to resist and prevail against the dark.

A gaggle of ragged musicians arrive
to play the for the old men, for greening
stones, gap-toothed in the adjacent yard.
A clarinet giggles and a waterfall

of notes pour out. Two fiddles
and a concertina join in, welcoming
the coming night.


Original version -- In The Fiddler's House

Here in Kazimierz buildings sit close
to the cobbled streets, which teemed
with tourists earlier but now are empty
save these few old gentlemen

who come to meet in a courtyard,
shuffling toward one another similarly
white headed and bowed as if related
by more than culture and tradition.

Meeting is a blessing, a triumph--look
at their broad pink faces, how they smile
and clasp hands, greet in the mother
tongue. May you live one hundred years,

no small wish considering their histories:
the immigrant who fled into uncertainty
and helped build a nation; the survivor
who resisted, prevailed even as his family

perished and who says "There are 200
Jews living in Poland today."

A gaggle of ragged musicians arrive
with the old songs. Perhaps they play
now for only the greening stones
in the adjacent graveyard but the clarinet

giggles a waterfall of notes and fiddles,
an accordion join in as if to awaken
the cool, falling night.