Departure: December 13th, 2019

Trying to leave Szeged to visit Timișoara in Eastern Transylvania. It has been difficult. The weather is foggy and the days darken around 3pm. Nights are pointed teeth that freeze and lull. Still I wander out to find merrymakers at the Christmas Market each night. The shuffle of feet on ice. I cannot stand outside of this crowd. It is the slide of intoxication and hot wine. We must not fall together – we are too close. Tight and loud. These words will echo in the months to come when each will stand alone, look up at the sky from silent courtyards, listen to the songs of rigó thrushes, wait for the wisp of spring.

                       sleet like blades

                          fire barrels keep light 

                            roots intertwine below

Cruising: December 15th

But your blue eyes, Timișoara, are still in my mind. When I first tread beside you, I thought you were a grave digger. Your hands break with dirt. Your smile bleeds. 

“You rejected me once,” you said. “Now I must take you to your destination.”

We could have been the same person with a variety of stories. We may have been lovers had circumstances been different. In our trampled garden, we might have warned the grandchildren. 

                           sunlit plazas unfurl

                               luggage clangs along cobbled roads

                                   a wheel breaks