Four Poems by Arthur Turfa

 

Göring in Captivity

 

Loudly sang the Reichsmarschall,

first to arrive in the makeshift chapel.

 

An incongruous sight in the first row

morphine-addict, in his mind reliving

 

dog-fights from long ago, recalling the

plundered works of art. Once the

 

second-in-command to pure evil,

now ingratiating himself with charm.

 

He saved the Jews who tended his

wounds after the Putsch., but ignored

 

the cries of those from ghetto and camp

facing underserved death. What were

 

the thoughts in his mind as he sang

the hymns he had scorned for so long?

 

All a façade- in the end he refused

the Host and swallowed hidden cyanide. 

 

 

Before I Lived in Cities

 

Before I lived in cities

I remember the exhilaration

riding through the Liberty Tubes

in the backseat of a station wagon

and beholding the city wedged in

between the rivers resplendent in sunshine.

 

A few years later and for longer

commuter trains to another city;

the Reading Terminal awash in

sawdust and food of all kinds,

winos teetering on Market Street

vending soft pretzels three-for-a-

quarter as  pedestrians and SEPTA

busses passed by.

 

At the discount eyeglass store

Dad summoned small-town ethnic

charm Eddie, this is my son!  I

smiled as Eddie said Ah! Your son!

as it probably happened in

towns back in the Old Country.

 

In time scouring newsstands for copies

of Der Spiegel, head shops on Sansom

Street for Rolling Stone and things I

never would use, cheaper LPS than

they had in the mall.

 

Decades pass, I came and went, fascination

turned to frustration, then to flight. Then

unexpectedly occasional return, showing the

sights to our son, recapturing the wonder,

wounds healed from the time I lived in cities

 

The Second Hometown

Distances were so much closer between

the villages. Resemblance among the

 

houses (no basements- a shock) different

though in size and curbing, looping streets that

 

connected new-found friends to me as the

years passed and remain in memory though

 

others live in them now. Behind me stretched

the quarries, kilns, colonial relics,

 

perfect for hiking or contemplation

as I pondered options for the future,

 

vague ambitions slowly taking shape as

vagaries swirled within and around me.

 

Tesserae I gathered, some discarded,

finding others far away, later on

 

marveling as they fell into patterns

more resplendent as I imagined then.

 

Blessed was I to show their colors to some

from those village that became my home.

 

 

Winding River: The Susquehanna

The stream that falls towards the south, stretching

across three states in a zigzag pattern

 

is a fickle force. Wide and beautiful,

forests and towns dotting the riverbanks

 

with stunning views. Green in spring or summer

aflame in autumnal splendor, bare-branched

 

in cold winter’s grip, twice in my memory

creating chaos. Once overflowing

 

banks in Agnes’ June catastrophe

(I was 100 miles to the south then),

 

Two decades later almost within sight

as snowmelt reinforced the surging stream.

 

Guardsmen and civilians sandbagged near

the bridge, downriver some of us waited

 

news of disaster or deliverance.

The levees held, the waters surged to the

 

Chesapeake. Once again the river was

lovely to behold, its waters calming.

Arthur Turfa is a Lexington, SC-based poet/writer active in the South Carolina Writers Association. His poems have appeared in The Petigru Review, the Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and one was in the Top Ten for the 2019 Poetry Prize of The Pangolin Review, as well as in other publications. His most recent poetry collection is Saluda Reflections from Finishing Line Press, © 2018. The Botleys of Beaumont County on Blurb, © 2021, is his first novel. Epiphanies, his short story collection, was released in March 2024 from Alien Buddha Press. He is a Poetry Editor for the Eleventh Hour Literary Review, reads poetry for The Petigru Review, and is a Fiction Reader for the Northern Appalachia Review. He also reviews books for the Tupel Press and other publishers. Currently, he is working on more poems, a second novel, and a second short story collection.