THE WRITER'S BEGINNING

( for Cynthia Ozick)

by Ivy Garlitz

Imagine, it was always winter then
in the thirties, the Bronx, the pharmacy;
the mother filled prescriptions for the men
the cold dragged in, while humming melodies
remembered from another time, country,
another life... the windows cried with steam,
the father bowed the shelves with remedies
for the eternal cold outside, the lean
small daughter snuggled to the pipes, The Green
Fairy Book, the warmth inside, the stories
she read, she overheard, remembered, keen
to learn both languages, old and new. She
saw later this was where it all began:
what followed was a wish to have again.

Please do not reproduce this poem without permission from the author.

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