Ilona Martonfi’s most recent poem to appear here was “Short Songs: Tanka Poems” (June 2018).
Elegy for Apu
By Ilona Martonfi
—Mártonfi József July 9, 1915-April 28, 1993
Where should I look for you, Father?
Carried on the wind
keening sounds
peasant house built of timber
clay mud oven, wide plank floors
the village of Tillsonburg.
Lake Erie sand dunes
you’d hear a gate open
of course we never came back
we had friends and relatives
photos of a first love
that are left on a table
child-size rocking horse
blueberries in marsh bogs
seeing life would scar
would miss the dancing cornfields.
There is nobody here
to answer the question, Father
did not warn us of omens
in those last days of April
houses of simple people
white picket fence
windows and doors on broken hinges
Potters Road wild roses
Father, don’t eat the skin of peaches.