Every Day the Trains Arrive and Depart

Every Day the Trains Arrive and Depart

Unpublished work (c) 1990, Lisa Page Weil
All rights reserved.



Every day I watch the trains arrive and depart.
I only live here for a part of the year.

Lived there,
Where?
Did what?

Publish here with Permis de Stat.

As Christmas approaches once again,
I find myself thinking of you.
The Minister of Education approved my application for graduate study,
And I learned Romanian before continuing academic work.

The train left Bucharest a few minutes ago,
And I’m traveling back to Germany.

Last year, I studied German.

To the Piat,a Libertat,i and back, twice.
Centrul social;
Allowance for food in lei.

I expect that I’ll be kept busy with my early schedule;
(6 hours–8 a.m. to 2 p.m).
Then afternoons with my second language.

I now live in Germany and Romania,
Where I study language and literature,
And I expect to remain overseas
For a few more years.
I’ll be in Bucharest late in the summer.

I’m in Germany for most of the year.
I have to speak with a professor there.

When I heard of my acceptance in Germany,
I moved to town and prepared to enroll.
Inventing an imaginary setting for a fiction;
Only a few referential details,.
And some bills from somewhere.

The University had sent me an earlier acceptance letter,
Which I received in Bucharest.
I had already traveled to Germany.

By the time the train was at the Budapest train station,
It was constant;

A stop for an hour in Budapest;
And I disembarked to stretch my legs and to see
Whether I could find a large bag of Hungarian bubble gum balls.
The Hungarians sell pounds of it for a small amount.
165 Forints for a half Kilogram.

The train is scheduled to arrive in Bucharest by afternoon.

Distance and circumstance–
Eastern Europe--
A sustained academic and private life.

I arrived in the
–Evening,
For another day of language class.
I decided to continue traveling;
Return to Bucharest in September.

A few more weeks and I’ll be away from Western contact in Bucharest.
I don’t know whether I will return next year,
Or whether I will remain.

I bought you some books
Which are traveling by boat;
Maybe they will arrive by May.

After three weeks in Bucharest; where I enjoyed the cold,
Watched the Dimbrovit,a freeze and thaw,
Visited old friends,
And completed my plan of study;

Most of my company has been my work, studies, books, and family.

By tomorrow afternoon, I’ll return to Bucharest for two or three weeks.