#1359 - map of Budapest

 

1359

21.ix.23

4.265

map of Budapest

returning to places where I have not been

 

 

it’s a kind of carpet we fleas came through

that’s how it’s done

 

mostly catacomb

one time at a place

 

the bent cross

the star cut out of the flag

 

these are streets walked until gone 

 

to tell is to live again

to build the place from memory

 

an island for foxes and ammunition

and here comes a Russian tank

another cocktail’s thrown

 

I ride in the fairytale

steam rises, like a minaret

 

here’s Gellért, tumbling off our hill, a martyr

 

my father is walking his fox on a lead

down Ráday Utca, grandparents’ street

here comes the policeman to take care of that

 

and after school

a little party at Gundel’s

to celebrate again –

victory with a celluloid ball

 

here and there ancestors are born

 

they build from what they can remember

and some will flee

 

keep their goulash kosher

or couldn’t care 

 

they fled to be here

they’re used to

 

light catching up

light overtaking

 

here’s the admiral

boats in a bath is the best he can do

 

commanding good common sense

to barter with the countryside

 

they come rattling in, peasants

tractors and trucks

 

the Russians are hungry too

and now we have a casino

 

a palace of up

and a dungeon down

 

Red Terror, White Terror

the Arrow Cross

avos – various colours

 

Nazis hold out on the Castle Hill

a wall full of bullets here

you can still see

shoes of the river bank

 

and every bridge down

 

the hummus bars

Dohány Utca

my grandfather’s getting married again

 

the violins play out

they’re almost gone

 

streets are lit with phantoms

by blood

 

sad old Béla banished to the Hotel Europa

 

river’s mud

but it’s life

 

you should read the divorce settlement

first and the second

and there will be more

 

up all night carousing, gambling

with what, you may ask?

 

a door to door salesman

 

Pannonia, Macaristan

 

creatures of the past well buried

turbans, feathers, scimitars too

 

a choke point, pontoon

and now the Metro

 

how dare the sky we say and yet

we’re there

and when we’re there we’re gone

 

does anyone know how the heart lies hidden?

will anyone speak up for it?

 

the jewels to barter for bread, for meat

and now a poem, a song

 

telling on

 

the golden age still glows

two cities one

everyone’s building

 

there is the odd self

one time at a place

 

everyone gets on

 

and the devil too – man’s tragedy

just around a corner

 

now there is glutenfree

now there is vegan

 

some say that the wars were only imagined

 

all of this happens at the same time

 

and so say all of us

and wonder who we are 

to remember so far from ourselves

 

here come the Romanians

just in time to save grandmother, Paula

 

it’s all on the one day

this is the map where

 

there isn’t a stick left to burn

 

now we take down the ghosts of the trees