APRILIA ZANK

APRILIA ZANK

PARTING

the dawn blurs

under persistent rain

the narcotic still in my blood

I head toward a tedious awakening

weave between slumber

and half-awareness

try to focus

on images trickling down

into the blown rubber sealing

of the bus window –

cleft from myself

my gaze penetrates the pane

rambles

sends back messages

which I fail to understand –

I strive to give content to words

burning on huge hoardings

towering the road

benevolent welfare promisors

grin at me

with regular false teeth –

a bunch of school kids

splash momentary shades of colour

onto the grey of  daybreak

I struggle to disentangle

the now from the yesterday

at the other end of the day

on the roadside

a woman petrifies

in an endless

waving

SAM

was not his true name

but it was penciled

on his blind window

and, anyway,

nobody cared

he lived in this cabin

next to the station

came out at dusk

for empty bottles

or short chats

with late passers-by

his coat

the same blurred tone

as his voice

though, at times,

this would sparkle

with exhilarating syllables

when they rebuilt the station

after clearing the area

some passer-by

would spend

half a thought

on Sam's whereabouts

unknowing

he had chosen

the night train

for his end destination

ON VISITING GANDHI'S RESIDENCE IN MUMBAI

when you grasp the door handle

touched by the seer who opened doors to the world

and you enter a house which was home to history,

you might expect a sanctuary

with gods beckoning from all corners,

and you are astounded to perceive

the frugality of the space

that sheltered the intricacy of a beautiful mind

and the profusion of a mankind devotee –

the rows of books on the shelves,

hard beaten paths to the strength of wisdom,

the plain mattress on the bare floor

breathing the humility of a life lived for the many,

the dhoti and shawl woven with hand-spun yarn

from the charkha, graciously adorning the room,

in glass cases, bits of life caught by the camera obscura

journeys, devastation, even his meet-up with Chaplin –

you leave, overwhelmed by the past turned into present,

encapsulated in history not by the sway of weapons,

but by the sagacity of path-breaking words

APRILIA ZANK

Dr. APRILIA ZANK is an educationist, freelance lecturer for Creative Writing and Translation Theory, as well as a multilingual poet, translator, editor from Munich, Germany and an Author of the Poetry book BAREFOOT TO ARCADIA. Born in Romania, she studied English and French Literature and Linguistics at the University of Bucharest, and then moved to Munich, Germany where she received her PhD degree in Literature and Psycholinguistics for her thesis, THE WORD IN THE WORD Literary Text Reception and Linguistic Relativity, from the Ludwig Maximilian University, where she started her teaching career. The research for her PhD thesis was done in collaboration with six universities from Europe, and as a visiting lecturer at Alberta University of Edmonton, Canada. Dr Aprilia writes verses in English and German, French and Romanian and was awarded a distinction at the “Vera Piller” Poetry Contest in Zurich. Her poetry collection, TERMINUS ARCADIA, was 2nd Place Winner at the Twowolvz Press Poetry Chapbook Contest 2013. In 2018, she was awarded the title “Dr. Aprilia Zank – Germany Beat Poet Laureate”, by the National Beat Poetry Foundation (USA). She has been an acclaimed guest at cultural events in Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Turkey, Singapore and Romania, where she read her poems, delivered lectures on various topics. Her poems and articles are published in many ezines and Anthologies of different countries.