Fresh juice, never buy Sno Crop
Moscovitz fresh warm bagels
Cream cheese, deli belly lox
Smoked white fish or sturgeon
Tomatoes, cukes and capers
Can only be served open face
Home-made herring in a large jar
Cups of percolated coffee and cream
Chocolate Babka and cinnamon rolls
Such were the joys, so it now seems
Nostalgia’s a mere closed eyes away
That was so long ago and far away
Things like that don’t happen nowadays
Tiny storefront restaurant
The middle of the block
Packed, waiting outside
Large family style tables
Mixing arriving guests
With no printed menus
Only two entree choices
Maybe salad or veggies
Red or white in carafes
Owner guards the register
Silently adding up the bills
Tells the waiter il conto
Nothing ever written out
Always an even number
Cash is the legal tender
No Michelin reviews
Just the best bar none
A river of memories
Flow into my life
Dancing like dragonflies
Chasing each other
Grey photographs inside
The album of my mind
Fingertips turn pages
On skin is last decade’s dust
Armchair dreams make me smile
Love journeys with heart and hands
Unaccountable footprints
Reach the ancient elm tree
Two bodies ignite the dawn
Dew drops fall from leaf to leaf
And the distance in their eyes is
A homecoming they can’t deny
Beautiful ghosts lay lost
Between walls of heavy sighs
Reminiscing in corridors
Nobody gets away unhurt
A dream dropped me on a hilltop
As simple as it was beautiful
White clouds tinged with blue
And I wondered – Is this all there is?
Down in the valley where laughter cried
Birds forgot where to fly
And blades of grass swayed
Without fear of being wrong
A dream dropped me on a hilltop
And flung me backward through
To a time when my life
Had bubbled with ideas
Dry and dependant on tears
My eyes just wanted to keep seeing
These days I walk
at an easy pace
In cold autumn months
I choose sheltered streets
where wind is more merciful
to my face
Climbing up steep terrain
tires my heart,
each breath gasps for the next
I no longer try to be
a marathon runner
In the end of it all
time catches up- anyway
Today I bade farewell again
to another season
Watch last oak leaves
falling onto a cold ground
Take the time to listen
to my own footsteps
Sometimes, I think of us
in idyllic northern summer
lazing by the winding river
Gazing over water ripples
stealing our reflections
Riding horses through
corn fields- unfazed of
what is behind our sphere
Little we knew then how
in the future
we had to carry the world
on our shoulders,
loaded with consequences
of our actions
Decisions made in haste
not knowing how in life
everything has its price
These days I walk with care
I don’t want inflict pain
on anyone- on anything
I hope you too think of the time
where we stepped into adulthood
and on this crossroad of life,
we lost each other- forever