right in the eye
of history
I walk
among the crowds
that taste
the absence of confinement
an unfamiliar space
between the band stands
on the avenues
where people
test a freedom
newly won
still strange
as yet in need
of daily reassurance
crossing and recrossing
the big gate
and the bridges
that for generations
connected nothing
marked divisions kept
by guns and barbed wires
and well-lit empty spaces
between walls
watched from towers
the new reunion
brings happy smiles for most
quiet tears for some
new doubts for many
who are uncertain
now
about their lives together
after decades
of separation
right in the eye
of history I walk
just now and then
a little bit afraid
that she might
rub her eye
just now
* *
Written October 3, 1990, about one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.