BERLIN

Darkness fell upon these streets

While the eastern Russian winds paralyze my spine

With each step, I hear the whimpers of the past

The sensual moans of new-found lovers

Who don’t know each other’s names,

But when prompted, they caress each other’s nipples

while their limbs fall into each other’s bodies

As I wander through Berlin

Where the fog towers over the grey buildings

on Sonnenallee

Where the streetlights glare against the frosted windows

And anonymous shadows are transient guests on the pavement

This is the city where my memories are

Fossilized corpses

Fragmented notes that are abandoned by age

The honking cars, street hustlers, and bodega cats of Brooklyn

are a distant dream

Disjointed recollections of tenderness

Lost in this East German city

These memories, hoping to escape by daybreak

Here, the alleyways are desolate in winter