Liebesträum
SUSANNA RICH
[pdf]
Away on a silent retreat,
I do not learn of your passing,
Grandmother, before
Uncle Muki has you sealed
into the most expensive coffin
he could buy.
Sunday night wake in October—
no garden red roses, as you once
asked me to put into your hand
when you died, no florist open,
only King’s Supermarket’s
browning roses painted a garish pink,
a clutch of baby’s breath to bring.
Theirs is the soft thump on the lid
of your coffin above your hands,
theirs the thin scrape of thorns.
The warmth is the kiss I kiss
onto your steel coffin, my touch and touch–
that small fumbling down the corner
of the cloth they billow over you
in the sacristy? Mine.
Do you hear the Hungarian anthem?
Mine the first notes.
Mine the final fluttering down of
the other thing you asked me
to place in your hands—
the score of Liszt’s Dream of Love.
Note: This poem was previously published in Sensations Magazine.
SUSANNA RICH is a bilingual Hungarian-American poet and translator, a Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing (Hungary), a Collegium Budapest Fellow, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Kean University (NJ). With two Emmy Award nominations for poetry, Susanna is founding producer and principal performer at Wild Nights Productions, LLC. Her repertoire includes the musical Shakespeare’s *itches: The Women v. Will and ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Shoah. Susanna is author of five poetry collections, most recently Beware the House and SHOUT! Poetry for Suffrage.