Art Heifetz

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January

we raise our glass of wine
to new beginnings
but the metallic dawn 
lightly dusted with snow
finds us huddled under
thick wool blankets
barely holding on
until the spring
dreaming of tropical mornings
where the lilies open to receive
the bursting sunlight
where an orange-colored bird
we haven’t learned the name of
poses for an instant
on the Jesus fountain in the garden
then flies away
the flash of color
only a brief memory





Teaching English as a Crazy Language

They sit like exotic plants 
estranged from the African sun,
a little battered from the journey,
still bundled in college sweatshirts
and woolen hockey caps
against the snow
which surprised them this morning,
falling like spores of cotton
from the silver sky.
They laughed as it landed
on their noses, in their mouths,
the taste as unfamiliar
as the new names
printed on their notebooks,
Mary and Alice and Donald and Bill
or the new words 
they try to wrap their tongues around.
How many brothers do you have?
the teacher asks.
Three, all died in Darfur,
one missing in Egypt,
two maybe in Holland.
How much sugar do you need?
One kilo to make our lives here sweet,
three to erase the bitter war.
Please teacher, Mary asks,
why do you spell it N-I-G-H-T?
Because English is a crazy language
where knights go forth at night
and chickens are mistaken for kitchens.

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Art Heifetz teaches ESL to refugees in Richmond, Va. He has had over 100 poems published in the U.S., France, Israel, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Singapore, India and Spain. In 2013 he was nominated for a Pushcart and won second place in the Reuben Rose international poetry competition in Israel. 

www.polishedbrasspoems.com.