Silke Feltz

One Elbi

Not many know of Elbi, hidden in a Franconian fairytale forest

some hundred souls, almost all Catholic from birth to deathbed,

one bar; a joint for tough men who drink their breakfast.

One beergarden and one soccer team that circles around village patriotism,

one church with unique voices and one sheriff who speaks Greek and

keeps his herd of sheep together, making sure noone goes astray.

Elbi is the home of one vegetarian who carves signs that say, “Kein Wanderweg”

and rides his bike to work every day, refusing a raise because he doesn't need more money.

Elbi shelters one farmer with the biggest, most scary-looking dog in a gritty courtyard,

guarding an old house and an even older family. And one baker drives through Elbi once

a week and honks, one time, to invite the Elben to buy warm bread.

One village beauty is dating a smart looking fellow from Munich who already has one ex-wife,

and one bachelor built a mansion for himself, maybe to not end up alone in the end.

One rooster wakes the southside of Elbi every morning, and some Vokuhila* lads gather

in one house to watch soccer, and sometimes also porn, on a big screen in the basement.

Elbi's graveyard has one grave I visit every time I am there, kissing you hello and goodbye.

One's home is one's castle is one's shelter is one's room.

Everyone has only one.

There is only one Elbi for me.

*mullet

These Grounds

These grounds offered opportunity;

they swallowed my demon fears and

opened the window to a view that

seemed limitless, no horizon in sight.

They listened to my ambition— crazy dreams

and endured me stumbling along

from time to time, not sure

where to turn and who to become—

Chekov’s Darling maybe?

These grounds chased off my pride

and they secretly smiled as I fell

flat on my face; throbbing knees.

On these grounds I looped pound after

pound and gained a heart so full

I sometimes feared it might flow over

without warning me.

These grounds witnessed me laugh, gossip, plot,

hope, complain, snicker, giggle and sigh—

happiness and disillusion are silently

carved into them as I follow these fairy paths

until I quietly have to kiss them goodbye.

I Wish You Well

I wish you well. This time, no tears stand like soldiers between us

and it’s liberating, really, to be here without you.

You only talk to me when you want cash and call me a DINK.

The line turns mute when I wreck my car or when I lose my husband

to a job. You quietly never had my back and we are just another coin

accidentally dropped into a wishing well. But today, I wish you well.

I wish you luck! Everybody needs it and you have had your share

but I hope luck will continue to be your ally because I can’t.

Your shooting stars will keep falling, but please make sure

to close your eyes quickly and hope before the moment drowns.

You don’t believe in stars. Yet, they sparkle in your beautiful

daughters’ eyes. I wish you luck. Trust me, you’ll need it.

I wish you success. You always have been the smarter one,

giving me a hard time about failing the driver’s license test,

about math, physics, chemistry. All I was good at was reading

silly books. Literature is not a major, it’s a hobby,

you used to say, smirking. I was the little sister only hiding

behind words, dreaming my life away. I wish you success.

I wish you well, Brother. We never really walked together and

we never will cross paths in our two different worlds.

You’re in yours and I’m in mine. There’s no overlap and I’m

at peace with you being this one person who could’ve known

me better than anybody else in the world.

I wish you well.

Bio:

Silke Feltz is a PhD Candidate of Rhetoric, Theory & Culture at Michigan Technological University. While her research focuses on the rhetoric of veganism, she enjoys writing poetry and creative nonfiction. Her poems have been published in Drunk Monkeys and Drift.