In the U-Bahn: Vienna

I hear the sounds first:
cadences rising and falling
like an animal caught on a wire.

I see a man handcuffed
against a white wall.
Syllables stain the air.

Questions crowd his head
as they pollute his body
with bruising police fingers.

I touch a hole in time:
the blinding sight of Nazis
is stamped across young faces.

They watch me - watching them
and I'm infected by the man's fear:
my day draws as black as his face.

 

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