Mike Foldes; Two Poems

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i carry the past with me but i do not live in it.

i cannot shake it like a cold, it hangs on

like a hungry tick, sapping liquid from the tree.

all you who are inordinately reminded

of it square off now with your futures;

like the past, i, too, carry the future with me.

but i do not live in it. here and now,

the pleasant state of present unties itself

like the wine-colored belt of a velvet robe

falling open after a cleansing bath.

i carry the past with me; unlike the future,

it will always be there. but the present ...

it’s the present that takes my breath away.

Feeling DNA

I feel my DNA

chattering in the wind,

dry leaves at the ends

of bare branches,

and wonder in silence

at the depth and breadth –

the penetration –

of their serrations,

how far apart the tips.

Eva’s email arrives,

a newfallen leaf

at my tired feet

reading what she writes

of Miskolc, where

ten percent perished,

she being one of many

one of the few who remain,

promising to tell

“a lovely story”

of the second cousin

who converted, the seminarian

who got on a train to Belgium

to find safety

and died in Auschwitz;

of a growing concern 

with her command

of English spelling.

“That mottled leaf is yours,”

says the genomic tree.

This is a message caught

in the whorl of time

and things to do,

overloaded with hope,

exploding with wonder.

Is the experience unique,

will it be shared?

This look, that line.

A split second’s

understanding, then nothing.

That connection knowing

as it slips away.

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Mike Foldes is the founder and managing editor of Ragazine, an online literary magazine.

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Mike is also the author of Sleeping Dogs, A true story of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping
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