Poem: Bremen

A city sometimes unexpectedly charms me, feeling as comfortable as an old sweater.

Bremen Each trip to see some small part of the world     is a surprise, not in what is expected,     that’s always well enough researched One knows Amsterdam before ever going and     is charmed, beguiled, whisked along     in a state of rapture,     but seldom surprised It’s the unexpected that’s the wonder for me On my way from known Berlin, my mind full of anticipated  Dutch canals, I was     impatient with Bremen in my way A dirty, bustling port-city no doubt,     merely a blister on the map of Germany,     stealing away motorcycle-time on the road It’s old city center, all six centuries of it,     flower marketed and vegetable stalled,     nooked and crannied with a human scale       upon which architecture has long turned its back     It holds me there, fascinating and     begs me stay an extra day And so I do, taking the luxury so simply offered The old central winding park steals away my afternoon,     taken deftly by gabbling ducks and dappled shade,     feeling I was born here, lived some other life      among these homes I know and don’t know why This for me is the charm of travel, its pull     to the livable unknown, caught unaware     in a place, with choice I would have spent a life

This poem is included in Jim Freeman's poetry collection BROKEN PIECES available here in print or as an e-Book in your favorite formats.