in würzburg

By M.P. Powers

church bells
followed us everywhere
metallic and grumbling they rang
out of seagreen
clouds gliding along
the pennant strings from the festung
marienberg round
the japanese gardens to the hauptfriedhof
where I kissed you
on the burial plot of the brother
of the officer who tried to assassinate
hitler

poor bastard we mourned him and tried
to feel something real
in his memory but it was only the rain
we felt so we went to a liquor store
and picked up a bocksbeutel
bottle of silvaner
and brought it to the altemain
brücke

floating in a sea of umbrellas and voices
and wine
glasses the blue hydrangea
twilight settling
on the statue of saint killian and the hills
of vineyards
a mirage of peacocks
and the church bells tolling
and the church bells tolling

we could feel them
under our feet
touching our ears our lips our hearts
trailing
us back to our hotel
where I got you
in bed and kissed you
and touched you and I died

a little in your eyes that were leaping
blue minnows
as the church bells hammered
on the windows
trying to get in
but they couldn’t because
the windows
were closed.

M.P. Powers is a Floridian who works as a forklift driver in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of The Initiate (Anxiety Press, Fall, 2023) and Strange Instruments (Outcast Press, ’25). Recent publications include the Columbia Review, Black Stone/White Stone, Stone Circle Review, miniMag, and others. His artwork can be found on Twitter and Instagram @mppowers1132