BerlinFirst published in Contemporary Haibun Online 15:3, October 2019. Originally written in December
2013. See also “Historical Haibun.”
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.
When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be
joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful
and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West
Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front
lines for almost two decades.
All—all free men, wherever they
may live, are citizens of Berlin.
And, therefore, as a free man, I
take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
a pebble in the actor’s
shoe—
the chandelier of memory
crashes to the stage
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