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Farewell to Germany
I meet a woman teacher on the train
We talk
Intimately
Between Munich and Frankfurt
She is divorced
Has a lover in Boston
And two .children, the eldest thirteen
She considers moving there
But considers the
Difficulty for the children
To adjust
Near Frankfurt she asks,
Are you Jewish
Yes, I say -
"And when did you leave Austria."
In 1938, I say, when I was thirteen -
"Well, it was easier for you,
You had a good reason."
I turn my head
I am sorry she says
Did I make you angry?
I wave to her and
give a good bye kiss
As I get off at Frankfurt
To catch my plane back home
To Australia
And these
Poems,
On the long way
Towards an Answer | 