When asked, “Hey, how was your trip?” I’m often left either gagging on my own words attempting to summarize three months in Europe into a couple of coherent sentences, or I’m caught rattling off everything I did from start to finish without providing any tangible information that leaves anyone with a clue to the original question. It’s […]
Tag Archives | nationalism
I saw Berlin on a pogostick
Berlin’s blueprints were drawn up with a pogostick Measured in the highs and lows and Grandmaster plans of allies and enemies. You see Berlin on the pogostick Bouncing over jagged concrete memories of the torn down wall and Touching down in the basement art shows where gravity And creativity And bizarre performance pieces And the […]
Vienna’s birthday cakes
Vienna’s royal Hapsburg heritage is honored in its clean swept boulevards Stacked with birthday cake palaces and bronze fashioned fountains and If the horses hadn’t been caste they’d still prance As the H&M’d Viennese do between their 9-5s and ballroom cafes Extending elegant pointing fingers to select Pastries glistening beneath glass in a cloud of […]
Krakow’s squeaking trumpet
In Krakow, everyday at midday The trumpet sounds at each compass direction Of the town square’s clock tower. In its final directional note, Legend has it an invasion struck The trumpeter’s throat with an arrow, Recording an awkward Abrupt Violent And haunting Squeak Into Krakow’s collective memory. It is only new to tourists. It is […]
Budapest’s caves are the least scary thing
Budapest’s caves are the least scary thing about the city. I would rather sit in the echoes of an underground amphitheater With my headlamp turned off Than tour the brightly lit decadence of Viktor Orban’s illiberal parliament. I would rather bonk my head and let a scab form beneath the stalactites Before passing the recently […]
Beyond Petrin and Letna
Last spring I participated in a CHID study abroad program in Central Europe. Living in Prague and taking field trips across the border, this comparative history program focused on regional political science, history, public space and collective memory in the context of 20th century Central European WWII, Holocaust, and Communist history. Thinking through the ways […]