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John Budan

Familiar

The elderly, stooped, barmaid continues staring at me as though I were familiar. I
remember when her parents ran this gasthaus as Germany crawled out of the postwar.
That was many years ago when their only daughter was in love with an American soldier
boy.  I silently finish my beer before slipping out the back door of my youth.

leaves of yesterday
scatter on streets
of once broken cities
where young lovers
danced until dawn

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About the Author

John Budan has published widely. He lived in France where he found his alter ego Guignol in Paris at the Jardin du Luxembourg.