A DAY IN AMSTERDAM

by Gail Ghai


Today you took the train to Rotterdam
while I stayed comfortably in Amsterdam
nibbling on my savory breakfast in bed.

Later as I walked the slippery sidewalks
gorged with cobblestones, I had to dodge bellicose
cyclists while trying to balance my blue umbrella.

As I lunched on wine, Dutch cheese soup, brown bread
 thick as a duck’s belly, you inspected Delft’s hyacinth/white
pottery, but claimed you couldn’t choose one without me.

It was curiously quiet in the Jewish quarter when I
joined the afternoon tour. As we stood outside
the old Portuguese synagogue, a church bell suddenly

rang out three times reminding us of the Iberian Catholics
decreed that Sephardic Jews should: convert, exile
or be executed. A hundred thousand made their way to Holland.

At the Auschwitz Monument in Wertheim Park,
we each laid a stone for a murdered Amsterdam Jew,
so they know we still remember them, grieve for them.

Our tour ended at Anne Frank Haus where a tangle of tourists
taking selfies, greedily block the emerald dark doorway.
But I could only picture that moment when the Frank family

heard the jackboots crushing the stairs, their bookcase
yanked back, and Anne’s dark luminous eyes
gazing into those Aryan blue pools of death.  


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Gail Ghai is a poet, teacher, workshop leader, and author of three chapbooks of poetry as well as an art/writing poster entitled, “Painted Words.” She has served as Poet-in-Residence for the Pittsburgh Cancer Caring Center, North Allegheny School District and the International Poetry Forum. Awards include a Pushcart Prize nomination and a Henry C. Frick scholarship for creative teaching. Her work has appeared in Poet Lore, JAMA, Descant, Hektoen International Journal and Burning Wood Journal. She is moderator of the Ringling Poets in Sarasota, FL.