One Poem

Eugenia Hepworth Petty

BORDER CROSSING

I could see them just across the border, shaking their fists in the morning darkness. As we pulled under the awning I saw the problem. A large Italian refrigerator. Pristine. White. Like a slab of compacted snow. Passengers laid open rucksacks on wooden boards, but inspectors were sidetracked by the cries of two men bundled in parkas and woolen hats. A border guard fired a pistol in the air and shouted "Stop!" at the top of his lungs in Bulgarian. The men crossed their arms against the cold, watched in shocked silence as the box was carted away. I was betting the guard took it home that night. I could hear it humming away in his kitchen for three to six hours of rationed light. A young Romanian patrol officer in dark glasses handed me my passport as we boarded. The sun was just coming up over the fields.

Eugenia Hepworth Petty

Eugenia Hepworth Petty is a photographer, poet and collage artist living in Aptos, California. Her poetry and photography have been published in literary journals both nationally and internationally. Her work has most recently appeared in The Newport Review, Farfalu, Poesy and Zen Baby. A chapbook of her Ukrainian prose poems (Pamyat Selo/Memory Village) was published in 2007 by the Premier Poets Chapbook Series. Her artwork may be purchased at glittergirlgalleries.etsy.com

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