David Selzer is a writer of poetry, prose fiction, screenplays and stage plays. He embraces digital platforms to share his work of more than fifty years… READ MORE


  • INTIMATIONS OF MORTALITY

    That Easter holiday when I was nine,

    I filled the days of lakeland drizzle

    with the contents of the hotel’s bookcase.

    I remember one page from a Great War

    history. Only the uniform

    denoted humanity. What could have

    been a face was a smear in sepia

    mud. Wars and the aftermath of wars

    shaped childhood. In brief sun, we visited

    Wordsworth’s schoolroom with its harsh, scrawled desks.

    I was fussed to a snapshot. And there I am

    scowling at the brightness…

     

     

     


    One response to “INTIMATIONS OF MORTALITY”


    1. Mary Clark Avatar
      Mary Clark

      This about sums up a 20th Century childhood. For Americans, the two World Wars were followed apace with Korea and Vietnam. The last two were like that photograph, less clear about what it is to be human. Then there was an explosion of music, dance and art, and even poetry.

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