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Siempre,
Sarah Stern

Siempre, that’s what the man at the corner
would say when he’d begin a soliloquy about his life.
Each day we heard a different version of what I imagine
were his war memories intertwined with the now we were all in.
But, Siempre, Siempre seemed to be his anchor for something
significant that I wanted to know more about.
I connected it to his hands that moved
in the air, flitting, small birds.
This happened in Spain one summer
when I thought there was an order to things.

—
Sarah Stern is the author of We Have Been Lucky in the Midst of Misfortune, But Today is Different, and Another Word for Love. Recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations, Stern is also a five-time winner of the Bronx Council on the Arts’ BRIO Award for Poetry.

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