Krakow by Night

by Sylvia Maultash Warsh


She travels back to Poland every night,
wafts through the ghetto square
like the perfume of schmalz herring and
yeasty challah that has been absent
these fifty years
like her.
The earth-bred babushkas arrange
turnips in their stalls beneath
the empty vaulted sky
do not see her, feel her, miss her
as she floats down the inevitable lanes
of Kazimierz searching
for the shape of her mother
reclining in the sweet little courtyard,
the gentle arc of her mother
that she yearns to clasp but
which refuses her dream
like the shouts on stone of Jewish children playing,
replaced by silence,
a keen edge of silence that
tears open her heart each night
when she travels back to Poland.


* * * * *

"Krakow by Night" was previously published in Letting Go, an anthology edited by Hugh MacDonald, 2005

Sylvia Maultash Warsh was born in Germany to Holocaust survivors and came to Canada as a child. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies. She is the author of the Dr. Rebecca Temple novels, the second of which won an Edgar award. Her fourth book, The Queen of Unforgetting, was chosen by Project Bookmark Canada for a plaque installation. She has had a novella as well as numerous short stories published, some of which have been shortlisted for awards. She lives in Toronto and teaches writing to seniors.