The Suitcase
for Lukacs Denes
When he was nine
and on the run,
his mother gave him
a small maroon
leather suitcase.
He carried it with him
to all the places.
Taped inside the lid,
a cellophane envelope
of cyanide, in case
they caught him alive.
He lived through
the war.
Cannot tell how. He's
a doctor now. Married.
Owns a yellowing
hand-crocheted tablecloth
and grandmother's hollow
bone prayer book
that survived Auschwitz.
Keeps the old suitcase
in his bedroom,
inside a waiting closet.
Just in case.
Evelyn Wexler taught high school English for many years and is a member of the Stone Circle Poets at Sarah Lawrence College. Occupied Territory is her second book; her first, The Geisha House was also published by Mayapple Press in 1992.
Updated 4/18/07
Evelyn Wexler
Occupied Territory
Paper, perfect bound, 80 pp
$10 plus s&h
1994, ISBN 0-932412-06-8
“These intense, visceral poems cover the territory occupied by fear, pain, memory, loss and desire. The ultimate paradigm is that of the self--dual embodiment of victim and aggressor. Wexler's clear, steady voice convinces us that everything is both personal and political." -- Jane Flanders
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