APRILIA ZANK

 

High Way

 

the highway stretches away

unequivocally straight, flawless

a shooting star

falling back to the sky

 

the dual carriageway shows off

three lanes in each direction,

high-performance, grade-separated

junctions for a non-disrupted traffic flow

 

traffic signs align like parading soldiers

mandatory, danger warning

cautioning about prohibition

within intricate security claiming conventions

 

beyond the highway, on the other side

sunbeams debunk incidentally

the inscrutable towers of the factory in which

day in day out shells emerge from the assembly line

 

Requiem For Migrating Birds

 

the air is heavy

with smoke cries ashes dust debris

birds – molested displaced maimed – birds

searching for merciful cardinal points

new shores

to build their nests

to grow new wings

where now soot-stained feathers

flutter like discarded rags

 

Man-Made

 

she walks into the garden

stumbling across wall wreckage

searching

for the remains of some flowers

to hang above

the family photograph

 

so many missing now

 

not much left among the ashes

a few beheaded stalks

petals and stamina

scattered all over the place

 

she stoops down

digs with bare hands

under the ruins

for seeds

to plant in the spring

 

in the distance

growl and flashes

of man-made thunder

approach

relentlessly

 

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.