<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class="">Reversal of Fortune</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Somewhere in the crevice between dusk and dawn</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">just before the grey glow of daylight creeps </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">through the blinds, awakening my ache </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">for just one more hour of sleep, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">and you</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Your hand reaches down from the heavens, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">once again stroking my forehead</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">from the bridge of my nose to the hairline</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">smoothing out worry lines etched</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">since childhood, erasing mental litter,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">like waves of the ocean washing the shore</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The very shore where we strolled on</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">our first date, your large hand cradling mine, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">my own hand saying “yes,” while we spoke</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">in low tones as I’m speaking to you now </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">across the divide:</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">You wouldn’t believe that the country you fled</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">to find refuge from uniformed men goose-stepping </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">through your dreams, insisting <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">in the native tongue you detested<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">that you are one of them and there is no escape</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">That very land that worshipped blond and blue-eyed boys</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">is now led by a woman, is embracing </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">a million desperate dark-skinned people, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">and the grandchildren of your uncles and aunts</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">wash swastikas off buildings, place bronze plaques</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">on sidewalks announcing the truth of their clotted past</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">lest they forget</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">While the country where you sought and found asylum – </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">remember the woman lifting her torch to the huddled masses – </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">has closed its borders in a great forgetting of fake news </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">and alternative facts</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Did you know what was coming? Is that why, twenty years </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">before the buried grenades of terror and hate </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">burst forth like fireworks in America’s spacious skies, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">you returned to die in your homeland’s pastoral countryside?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The same countryside abutting the Black Forest </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">my family crossed on foot through perilous nights </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">to Amsterdam’s port, to the bowels of a ship, </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">to my country tis of thee, just before the glass shattered in yours?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">By what miracle did we find each other’s hands in the dark,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">did I allow the fingers of the enemy to caress away nightmares </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">of men in striped pajamas with yellow stars?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And by what quirk of fate are you gone, but the dreams are back </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">just before dawn, so I escape through the crack in search of </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">hallowed ground, where I can finally kneel at your grave,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">sing you to sleep, and rest my head on the grassy mound. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; min-height: 15px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;" class=""><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Linda Blachman</span></div></body></html>