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qimissung
02-03-2009, 11:07 PM
The days shuffle by like a worn
Deck of cards in a game of
Pinochle played by old men.
Many times I laugh and love,
Acting like someone who knows
That life has only gold doubloons
To offer. I feel that I must

Seem like some well-fed merchant
After a lunch of steak and whiskey,
Rolling his fine Cuban cigar through
His fingers, secure in the knowledge
That his stocks will, like smoke from
A smokestack, rise upward, ever upward.

Then I look over my shoulder and
See you, sitting stranded on an
Ice floe as the hurling current
Takes me, whirling and swirling,
Farther, ever farther, from you.

I pass through this moment like
The ether of a broken spirit
Through old glass, and I gaze
Around me, startled and blinking;
And nothing is as it seems,
But everything is green
And wavy as if seen through
The old eyes of the ocean.

And then my heart whispers
“Ich bin ein Berliner,”
And of it’s own accord,
My heart begins to weep.

Qimissung
February 2009

PrinceMyshkin
02-04-2009, 09:14 AM
The line breaks are so sure, so solemn, but nevertheless the heart weeping at the end comes as a hammer-blow. Fine, fine poem!

qimissung
02-05-2009, 08:52 AM
Thank you, PrinceMyshkin. That means a lot, coming from you.

blp
02-05-2009, 09:29 AM
This is very good.

You may know this, but just in case you don't and want to excise the unintended bathos, Kennedy's 'Ich bin ein Berliner' was a malapropism in German. Using the article 'ein' actually meant he was calling himself a certain kind of popular Berlin pastry. The correct form would have been 'Ich bin Berliner'.

qimissung
02-05-2009, 11:12 AM
Thank you blp. It's actually a myth that Kennedy was calling himself a kind of pastry. I did do some research before I used it.

http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth06.htm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_3379000/3379061.stm

blp
02-05-2009, 12:44 PM
Well I'll be.

PrinceMyshkin
02-05-2009, 01:43 PM
Well I'll be.

a pfannkuchen?

blp
02-05-2009, 02:03 PM
a pfannkuchen?

:p Dipped in icing sugar.