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Father Writes a Letter

Most Honored Herr Professor,
wrote my father, in German,
to his former teacher,
who had escaped to London.
It is March of 1939.
Father, Mother, and my infant self
had fled Vienna
for northern Italy. Decades later
this letter is in my hands. I recognize
my father's elegant European script,
struggle to decipher it and translate.
I write in the hope that
you can perhaps be helpful.
Reading these hand written words
for the first time
I am suddenly in the moment
of Father's desperation,
the effort of his polite restraint.
Filling the professor in
on his employment history
my father writes, I had to give up
the last two positions since I am
half Aryan [read half Jewish].
I am married, have a nine-month-old child
and hope from here on in
to have the possibility
of a new life. But the professor
could not help. His typed response
dated two months later
I have no trouble translating.

From Connecticut River Review, 2018. Copyright © 2018 by Felice Aull.
​All rights reserved.

On the Staircase

The first time I said yes to him
it was unspoken, just a nod
and he couldn't see my face.
He was a step above me
on the narrow metal staircase,
addressing the back of my head.
We teens were pouring down
to get to class, the bell  
dislodging us from lunch.
For weeks I'd seen him eyeing me
as I strode past him to buy soup.
I liked that he was watching.  

That day, he followed behind
gathering courage – as he told me
later – but only enough
to ask without looking.
And I, in a moony daze,
signaled yes, not missing a step,
not needing to see his face.

From Literature Today, vol. 5, 2016 
​Copyright © 2016 by Felice Aull.
​All rights reserved. 

Forget That

Forget that you forgot
your former student's name today
Forget you didn't recognize her face
until she said her name and
named the class she took with you
Forget that yesterday
you told a different student
you knew her mentor years ago
thinking that the mentor
was the student
whose face you didn't recognize
whose name you didn't know
Forget that yesterday
you made a special point
to ask that student to remember you to
her mentor-your-presumptive-former-student
whom you almost certainly
have never met and do not know
Forget that someday
you won’t remind yourself
to forget

From Mandatory Evacuation Zone, 2017 Kelsay Books/Aldrich Press
Copyright © 2017 by Felice Aull
All rights reserved.
​