I remember the thrill
of the crisp salt wind rushing
through the open car windows racing
to the cafe atop Gibraltar
the radio blasting Wonderwall
the Mediterranean sparkling below
I remember the glow
of your face
after that first sip of strong coffee
sitting in the bright spring sunshine
at a caffeine-perfumed patio table
catching up with our friends
gratefully treated to drinks
That first sip of coffee
lit you up
your eyes gleaming
your smile beaming brighter than a sunrise
your voice animating like a powerful trilling wren
your hands expressing more emotion than a flamenco dancer
Pure joy
after weeks of spending money on admission fees
instead of food
lugging our heavy backpacks
to and from train stations
past desperately tantalizing aromas
of espressos, cappuccinos, mochas
that we could not afford
It’s been three decades
since we searched Barcelona for Antoni Gaudí’s work
after our astonishment at the Sagrada Familia;
watched the sun set over Greek cliffs, escorted by a friend
whose mother fed us hearty meals and recommended just the spot;
raced against nuns and grandmothers to make it to the front row
and end up jostled against the barricades during Pope John Paul II’s Easter Mass
We stuffed ourselves on the juiciest oranges in Valencia;
sipped sweet mint tea offered by Moroccan rug sellers;
savored creamy gelato surrounded by pigeons in Venice’s Piazza San Marco;
but never had enough money for a daily coffee
Over 30 cities in six weeks, sometimes jumping off a train
to look simply look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Berlin Wall
and jump onto the next train
We spent every day arm in arm
shared childhood, college, family
intimacies and minutiae
split cheapest grocery store dinners
on squeaky hostel beds
I remember you vividly
though I may not see you again
my health fades
my body cannot travel to your side of the world
my thoughts and heart are there with you
M. S. Marquart (she/her) is a disabled, mixed-race Asian American, diasporic Korean American poet. Her writing explores the impacts of chronic illness and seeks to shed light on the hidden daily lives of people living with Long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), many of whom are primarily homebound like her and therefore missing from society. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts; Lombardi Voices; FLARE Magazine; Wishbone Words, miniMAG; Micromance Magazine; I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis, which is a publication by the Land and Labour Poetry Collective and Pillow Writers Anthology 2, which is a publication by the #MEAction online writers group for writers with Long Covid and/or ME/CFS. You can find her at http://www.msmarquart.com.
ELEVENTH HOUR LITERARY 