an old writer and his words

  • CARNEY BARKER

    You there, walking along the midway come into my tent, for only a dollar I will show you wonders beyond your meager comprehension but this offer is only good for the next fifteen minutes for that is when I start my show, It’s not something you want to miss. I know you’ve seen quarters pulled…

    Lou Faber

  • ON THE MANTLE

    Perhaps it is just that Ido not have a mantle on whichto place the cherished artifactsof my life, my parentsand grandparents photos,a family Tanach, the tallismy first adoptive father woreto his Bar Mitzvah. I have nothing, which this dayseems sadly appropriate,for their history really isnot mine, never was, Isimply borrowed it for a timebut all…

    Lou Faber

  • FOR ETERNITY

    Mother goneresting perhaps next toher daughter who lingereduntil even she grew tiredof battling the cells thatwere slowly consuming her,now with someone to continuetheir argument for the restof eternity.

    Lou Faber

  • THEM, AGAIN

    They say that you shouldnever approach or toucha small bird, lest it he shunned,perhaps to death, by your scent. I’ve never been one to listento any “them” with whom Icannot argue face to face,and so seeing the small bird on the ground curledin its nest, staring upat the branch from whichshe parachuted groundward I scoop…

    Lou Faber

  • SONNET TO A PORTUGUESE

    You came into my life last week, your nameforever locked away inside her mind.My life, she felt, would never be the sameand therefore left all thought of you behind.You loved her, I suppose, that summer nightthen left her, bearing me, until she turnedme over for adoption, that she mightforget the love that you so quickly…

    Lou Faber

  • A LITTLE DRUMMER

    It seems less than fair that as a childI was Jewish to the core, adopted, yes,but certainly fully Jewish and not merelyby maternal lineage which would suffice. Christmas was alien to me then, evenwhen I left Judaism behind, a shadowthat would follow me closely intomy Buddhist practice and life. But DNA made a liar of…

    Lou Faber

  • BLACK HOLE

    The universe is populatedby an as yet unknownnumber of black holes,points of hyper-density whose gravityis so great thatanything gettingtoo close cannever escape,or so we wereoriginally told. Hawking suggestedthere is hopefor escape, someenergy closeto the eventhorizon mayradiate backinto the universe. In the blackhole that wasmy family,I, luckily, provedto be thatescaping energy.

    Lou Faber

  • ADOPTION

    Without choice, I, evicted from the wombNot cast aside, despite what I would see,Too soon carried into an unknown room and gladly taken up, offsetting gloom,and soon another child, I becoming we.Without choice, I evicted from the womb was there to watch him fall into his tomb,leaving her with grief weighing heavily.Too soon carried into…

    Lou Faber

  • COOKBOOK

    As a youngster I thought I hadconvinced my grandmotherto one day entrust me withthe old family recipes, sincemy mother wanted little to dowith the kitchen and less withanything that came from “there.” It was a bit of a shock to learnyears later that grandma wasborn in London, that her mothershared my mother’s dislikefor the kitchen…

    Lou Faber

  • NEVER, STILL

    I know what you did not tell them,that much I could learn for myself,but what did you tell them? I knowyou were full figured, I think thatis the acceptable term, once it wasReubenesque, but someonemust have noticed something. Maybe those at work, sitting at theirterminals didn’t notice, you cameand went, few friendships perhaps,but you were…

    Lou Faber