For Susanne

FOR SUSANNE I came in search of skill and I found virtue In your climb up the stairs you were neat and clear Making no excuse for the way he hurt you But you cling to reality with a straight and peer- Less eye. On lined paper you have set your mark What could you deviate from, if not from right And knowing you is quite enough to park Truth on the lines, the tine your birthright. In this dark house Jews lived and hoped and dreamed Of a land where their strangeness was a claim To universal justice. How in the dark they teemed Until hope ran like melted butter on the name They must excise. Born in a country that did them wrong You forbid yourself the luxury of song. (c) Rosemarie Rowley From IN MEMORY OF HER (2008)