Snow

For Alexander Lernet-Holenia

I fall
You fall

We
Fall

A slope on the
Hungarian plain
A frozen river
Ice on the bridge

But still visible
Round ochre logs
And gold

A shield of
Gold

In the waterfall
Under the bridge
As we cross

Brown horses
Furry riders

Our caps yellow
Our grey Mongolian
Braids

– James Steerforth (© 1981 & 2010)

An older poem posted for One Single Impression and Gold.

A rather sparse (or reluctant or enigmatic) poem more about the selectiveness of memory than anything else.

When I wrote it, I had read several novels and numerous stories by the Austrian writer Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897-1976), which tend to be a mixture of historical and phantastic.

The scene pictured in the poem is from one of them, even though now I’d be hard-pressed to say which one. But I still remember the image of the Mongolian warriors riding across that wintry bridge in Hungary and looking down on the gold treasure in the river.