Pitching troop ship from Germany flowing toward Fourteenth Street, New York City, the trains to Merselis Avenue, Clifton, New Jersey
where Mother throws Father’s valise into the river, zigs from man
to man, jumps Mumchy and me from bed to bed, the boxes, shopping bags, to pack and repack
losing little things—my marbles, Mumchy’s newspapers, a family prayerbook Mother would not return to Father,
63 Grove, Passaic—car keys somewhere in the basement. We dodge collectors, set
mousetraps that spring on rats, lay down blue powder for roaches views of bricks,
parking lots, junk yard, from so many windows, flipping through rooms like a deck
of missing cards—twenty-one condemned houses, apartments on top floors, cold-water flats—
185 Madison, 14 Hamilton—always afraid of the next lurch, next eviction, going going the only safety
we know, trailing behind us, the long chain and smash of the wrecking ball.
Susanna Rich is a bilingual Hungarian-American poet, Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing (Hungary), and Collegium Budapest Fellow. With two Emmy Award nominations for poetry, and over a thousand performance and publication credits, Susanna is author of five poetry collections, most recently Beware the House and SHOUT! Poetry for Suffrage. “Keep Moving” appears in Susanna’s manuscript “Still Hungary,” exploring her grandmother’s life as a World War II immigrant to America.
