The Atlantic | September 2002 | The Reunification Center

Contents | September 2002

More on poetry from The Atlantic Monthly.

The Atlantic Monthly | September 2002

Elegies

The Reunification Center

by D. Nurkse

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Hear D. Nurkse read this poem (in RealAudio)

The Reunification Center
We brought pictures of the missing,
held gingerly, by the cropped margins,
as if the eyes were scalding; or food:
steaming casseroles without ladles,
though the night was mild; Evian;
M&M's, which we tried to hand out
in that cordoned-off street
where an ambulance chugged empty.

And each stranger refused, a little pained,
no, no, I'm here to help; we offered aspirin,
stock certificates, a child's rocking horse,
a teddy bear with an empty eye socket,
but no one consented to receive that treasure.

A doctor ashen with fatigue shouted
into a cell phone, shaking it
when it didn't answer; a digger
dozed hugging his shovel;
a survivor, mesmerized by the portraits,
stunned at their beauty, compared them
scar by scar with the faces of the living.

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D. Nurkse is the author of seven books of verse, including The Rules of Paradise (2001) and The Fall (2002).