Felix Purat’s most recent poem to appear here was “Amateur Cartography at the Bagel Shop” (April 2017)

Stopover in Leszno
By Felix Purat

Across the flatlands of Greater Poland
The clouds climb higher than progress in time:
Cumulus sky gods peer in secret
To see what’s become of their long-lost subjects,
For even the smiters of olde know compassion
Their motte-and-baileys plundered of possessions.

Above Leszno they paint sloppy shadows
Shading brown trainyards
Fresh in sync with a more organic Spring:
Purple carriages relax in silence, breathlessly still.
Further down the avenue a white glider
Oversees a glib roundabout.

If I hijack the plane from its skinny little stand
Pretending to be Harrison Ford’s padawan
Then maybe I can finally greet these gods and
Ask them to bless me with their stale favor;
Rejuvenating soul, skin, and skies
I will leave little Leszno radiant and spry—
Dancing the Krakowiak across pancake plains

As a girl, hand lifted, a white eagle’s feather, drags me
Forward to the tune of eternity, blessing my time before
The Great Immortal Reader flips my page
With a wise, wistful yawn.