John Webber
Singing for Karluv
A never ending stream
of feet move past
the tiny space in place and time
she’s chosen for her pitch
between the painters and the stalls.
She wants to sing for Karluv and his bridge,
she wants to sing the history
and make them sad, but happy
that they didn’t have to live it all,
to see it washed away.
She sings to the Mozart years,
to Kafka’s metamorphosis,
to Hitler’s boots and Stalin’s puppeteers.
She sings to a past
that only Prague can know,
to Hus and Palach, Wenceslas,
the squares and statues
lying in eternal wait
in countless tourist videos.
Finally she sings to Vysehrad,
to the ruins where it all began;
her voice takes off and soars
above the cliff and people stop,
not quite believing what they hear.
As the pennies start to drop
she looks into their eyes
to see if there’s any comprehension.
All she really hopes
is that there’s no more lies.
Page(s) 24
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