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Prague

By Stuart DischellPosted Wednesday, March 21, 2001, at 3:00 AM ET

Of stone, quarried
In the mind from
River banks
And deep places
Of earth where
Bronze tips
Lodged in decayed
Chests of vanished
Creatures, city
Of work horses
And alchemists,
Palaces and back
Alleys, jumble
Of language, pressure
Point of sovereignty,
Place I have never
Seen but where
My old ones
Walked for a thousand
Years, knuckle
On the hand of Europe,
Signature of the arrest
 Warrant at the station.

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Stuart Dischell is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Backwards Days.
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