an old writer and his words

  • PARENTAL MOMENTS

    My adoptive parents diedsix years apart, I receivedtwo announcement textsfrom the son they had together. We negotiated her obituary,and I am waiting for her funeral,but after seven years, I havegiven up hope of that happening. I did visit my birth mother’sgrave, placed a small  stone on hers, watered the groundwith tears of sadness and joy at…

    Lou Faber

  • QUESTION POSED, AWAITING A RESPONSE

    I stooped and spoketo a stone, asking the question.I was here before you arrivedand I will be her long after you leave.I held the sand in my handwarm from the sun, asking the question.I came after your arrivedand I will leave long before you are gone.I held the winter wind on the tipof a finger,…

    Lou Faber

  • AN ORPHAN

    I knew you’d show up in my dream,it was a matter of time and faith,or perhaps just playing the averages,sooner or later became sooner, that’s all. You had nothing to say, but that, toowas to be expected, for I have neverheard your voice, and imagine it akinto the voice of the GPS or perhaps Siri.…

    Lou Faber

  • DUST AND ASHES

    Between Scylla and Charybdisthey cower amidst the ruinsfearful to look skywardlest they encouragethe rains of hell. Now and then they visitthe corpses, hastily buriedgrief drowned by the soundof the laugh of the gunnerpeering down from the hills.It is always night for the souland lookout must be keptfor Charon, who ridessilently along the rivers of blood,that…

    Lou Faber

  • HOLY ARMY

    1. A millennium agothe army of the lorddressed in mail and rodeproud steeds acrossbarren lands, swordsflashing in a red roasting sunwashed in the bloodof the infidels.They stopped for prayerblessing the bodiesleft along the dirt trackleft by their hooves,a common gravefor common facesdiffering only in the colorof skin and hair. 2. In this millenniumthe army of…

    Lou Faber

  • WAITING, STILL

    I stood on the cornerwaiting patiently for you. It seemed like hours. It was probably minutesbut Einstein was rightabout relativity also. You never arrived,but I hadn’t expectedyou to do so, that wasthe nature of us. I will wait againin two weeks. Same corner as usual,but an hour earlier. You will not show upand will offer…

    Lou Faber

  • LIGHTS

    For eight days each Decemberthey call out to me as the flameof the candles flickers out,“Remember me” they say in unison,“remember me”, in the voice of the child,an old woman, in Yiddish,in Polish, German, Czech, Latt.I want to remember but I cannot seea face reduced to ash, blendedinto the earth of a farm field outside…

    Lou Faber

  • A HASTY BURIAL

    They should have hadan altar, even Abrahamhad one when he was readyto execute Isaac, and the raminterceded, to his ultimate peril. They should have hada funeral, that is just commonsense and decency, but theywanted no such thing, justbe done with it, bury it away. I still mourn the deathof science for I know that itoperates…

    Lou Faber

  • MEMORY

    We were told the average background color of the universe was turquoise.  She said “that’s because a coyote ripped it from the mountains outside Cerrillos.  But now they say it’s actually a shade of dark beige, drying mud colored.”  It was a glitch in the software, the astronomers said.  The coyote was unmoved. She sits…

    Lou Faber

  • A LESSON TO TEACH

    This is what I would tell my sons:“You came from an ancient people,a heritage of poetsand tailors, or thievesand blasphemers,of callous menand slaughtered children.I would give you these books,written by God, some have said,although I am doubtfulbut driven by Erato, without doubt.” This is what I would tell my sons:“I didn’t go to war —there were so many…

    Lou Faber