Three Magpies
       

Just now, this Jewish cemetery
doesn't feel so old.
These young green saplings
are breathing stolen life into
old rocks.

Just now, this is a beautiful place
for an ignorant mind.

An elderly man lifts his aging
Jack Russell beyond
our approach.

"You see this part?" she says,
cordoning off a rough area with
her fingers.
"This was the part of the camp
for women and children."

I grow excited remembering
the recent birth of my niece.
We walk on, up the embankment,
over the horizontal grave stones,
past the disused rail house and
back out onto the road.
Beyond the dual carriageway
Krakow purrs in the
midday sun.

My ignorant mind is almost 29
and I wish for three magpies
for my birthday;
a girl on a bike with a basket;
perhaps a few beers with the boys,
or some other reckless abandon.

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Copyright © 2018 Neil McCarthy All rights reserved
from Stopgap Grace
Salmon Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission