Thursday, January 16, 2025: Carole Mertz's "An American Student Abroad"

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Carole Mertz is the author of Color and Line, a collection of ekphrastic and other poetry. Her recent work appears in World Literature Today, The Ekphrastic Review, and Quill and Parchment. Carole is Book Review editor at Dreamers Creative Writing. 


An American Student Abroad

 

Time was—when I walked

the cobblestones of Salzburg

 

heading across the river 

to my music lessons. Those

 

who lived in Mozart's town knew

the best places to buy yogurts

 

in glass jars, eaten and returned

for a penny. Not many 

 

in my class were yogurt fans, 

suspended as they were

 

between U.S. and Austrian

fare. I enjoyed riding the

 

tram, enjoyed calling out

“Aussteigen” with my most

 

Germanic flare. The word

I knew best, the word

 

I hoped somehow would

carry me back to the U.S.of A.


© 2025 Carole Mertz 

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