A Life of Wonder

Your handless arm and distant gaze

survey my body

I see the repulsion my patent leather shoes

and crisp hat

have inflicted on your weary face

How will you reclaim me?

My big ears are in our wedding photo,

and your toothy smile and polka dotted dress—

we only posed to bring us back you know

to awaken what we feared we might lose

before I knew the shriek of bombs

and you the hum of factories,

this photo promised to return us

to us

Now you sing lullabies to your orchids

in a language I can’t understand

a language that returns me to the villages

so incomprehensible I am speechless

what ceremony will you use to return me?

bring me back to the you in this photo

to reunite me with this man who is no more

-zach braiker