Empires. John Balaban
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Empires
JOHN BALABAN
COPPER CANYON
PRESS
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Contents
Christmas Eve at Washington’s Crossing
Poetry Reading by the Black Sea
Three Men Dancing on a River Shore
Remembering Elling Eide (1935–2012)
Finishing Up the Novel after Some Delay
At Nora’s House, Shepard’s Roost, Atlantic Beach, NC
Waiting for the Painter to Return
Anna Akhmatova Spends the Night on Miami Beach
Empires
Our generation has gradually learned the great art of living without security. We are prepared for anything…. There is a mysterious pleasure in retaining one’s reason and spiritual independence particularly in a period when confusion and madness are rampant.
Stefan Zweig
A FINGER
After most of the bodies were hauled away
and while the FBI and Fire Department and NYPD
were still haggling about who was in charge, as smoke cleared,
the figures in Tyvek suits came, gloved, gowned, masked,
ghostly figures searching rubble for pieces of people,
bagging, then sending the separate and commingled remains
to the temporary morgue set up on site.
This is where the snip of forefinger began its journey.
Not alone, of course, but with thousands of other bits not lost
or barged off with the tonnage for sorting at the city landfill.
A delicate tip, burnt and marked “finger, distal” and sent