Below is another poem from my upcoming chapbook, “Home is a Sweater” that’s coming out from Finishing Line Press in June 2023. https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/home-is-a-sweater-by-stefanie-wielkopolan/
Berlin is a City of Borders
Berlin is a city of twin beds
pushed together at night
and a friend
I no longer hear from.
It is a city of grocery stores
so efficient and bare boned
that even a lost tourist
can find sugar free jelly
in aisle 10, on the second floor.
Berlin is a dead-end street
where we sleep
book ended by a cemetery
and Italian market.
It is the city where you
laid beside me,
talked me to sleep,
but kept your distance.
Berlin is twenty German words
shared between two American friends
who studied literature and the need
to hold on.
It is a city of self-cleaning
public restrooms and cheap
falafel pitas, outside
the S-Bahn station.
Berlin is East
and West
trying to push closer together
so that borders disappear.
We do the same
but fail.
Stefanie Wielkopolan 