The House of the Composer

By Frederick Pollack

His flat overlooks

the rear of the restaurant. Whose view

from the front commands the entire gentle

slope. The orchards and vineyards,

the farms (whence the cheeses);

here and there fruitpickers, cows;

the sea, cruise ships.

When he returned from the camps,

the place was a shack. Painters could trade

art for food; he had a harmonica.

Now very few can afford to eat there.

The museum is cheap to maintain:

framed scores, photos of ensembles playing

the “wrong-note” harmonies he favored

when he broke, early on, with Darmstadt;

the closet became an old-fashioned

sound booth. The girl seems both

glad and alarmed when someone comes;

hands you a ticket, smiles,

returns to her screen.

The air is full of what they’re having.

Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, THE ADVENTURE and HAPPINESS, both Story Line Press; the former reissued 2022 by Red Hen Press. Three collections of shorter poems, A POVERTY OF WORDS, (Prolific Press, 2015), LANDSCAPE WITH MUTANT (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), and THE BEAUTIFUL LOSSES (Better Than Starbucks Books, September 2023). Pollack has appeared in Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Magma (UK), Bateau, Fulcrum, Chiron Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, etc. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Hamilton Stone Review, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Mudlark, Rat’s Ass Review, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, etc. Website: www.frederickpollack.com