Kate's Takes

October 6, 2016, was National Poetry Day. It was also the centennial of my mother's birth, and it inspired me to compose this poem as a memorial to her life (October 6, 1916-November 22, 1978). She was born in Budapest, Hungary, and died in North Miami Beach, Florida. The photo is her wedding picture, February 22, 1935.



October 6, 2016
A Memorial to Eva Eysrick

One century ago, this very day,
My mother entered on this earthly plane,
A babe with future lit by bomb bursts’ spray,
An innocent midst Europe’s millions slain.

Two decades flew, in turn the young bride bore
A babe as World War II its maw disgorged,
Her peaceful life again steeped into gore,
With Budapest’s fine buildings crushed and scorched.

In 1944 we fled for life
Across the border into German lands.
Her sister was a German soldier’s wife,
Her home a refuge, safe from Russian hands.

And then American bombs in night sky glowed,
The houses left and right of ours lay shattered,
Wrecked railroad cars and tracks all movement slowed.
They bombed whatever for survival mattered.

Once more we fled, into the countryside,
Where fields and woods and farm house attics beckoned;
Yet war’s last blasts made all in bunkers hide
For days on end while Hitler’s end times reckoned.

A life rebuilt from what three bags could hold,
In make-shift rooms with wooden crate décor,
One tub of water, stove-warmed from the cold,
Shared weekly in three turns upon the floor.

In 1950 a new babe arrived
And immigration to America set sail,
The family in new world freedom thrived--
Good work, good friends, good home, a happy trail.

A quarter century of peaceful living,
Too soon a widow, Florida new home;
Too soon a deadly illness, unforgiving,
A century later, her last spark—this poem.


©2016 Kate Jones