Liz Marlow

Sara Contemplates Where Her Parents Might Be

 
Terezin, 1942

Papa
When he left us,
            he might have slept
            on velvet
            warm with sighs,
or in a valley covered
with snow that never melts—
where a train ends.

Mama
When she left,
            I no longer cupped
            my ear for children’s
            laughter in the distance
or listened for the kingfisher’s song—
a warning
of approaching boots.

Without my parents—
in every room,
in every crowd,
I am alone.

In a dream, I am a bolt
            of fabric
            patched from all
            of Mama’s head scarves—
            some silk,
            some wool.

In a different dream—
            Papa reminds me
            to unspool,
            unravel;
Mama reminds me to sew.

Liz Marlow's debut chapbook, They Become Stars, was the winner of the 2019 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition. Additionally, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best Small Fictions, The Greensboro Review, Nimrod International Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She is the founding editor of Minyan Magazine.