Where my Heart Lives

It has been 14 years since I left Austria, and still my soul feels slightly more alive inside its borders than perhaps anywhere else, even if it no longer quite feels like home. Here's a mini attempt to capture some of my love.

A Year in Red-White-Red

Fluttering red banners beckon the brave
“Slide up my oil-slicked May tree”
Double-headed eagle soaring above
White-tipped Alps studded with mountain goats
Cowbells echoing blissfully from Alms
Summer’s delight to hike 800-year old masonry

Trade in Holundersaft below fountainheads
For red-leafed glory on pressed wool jackets
Eating Speck on spacious pastures with view
Toward white sails dotting the lake
October bells peal the approach of coffee time
Reminding of seasons, tradition, and apple strudel

Forcing chins deeper into felted red scarves
Old-style wooden sled drags behind
Leading to mugs of Jägertee on the mountain,
Where knees knock to accordion music
Beats count out stars scintillating like diamonds
Across the snow-white playing field

Melt into warm white rays of March
Bouncing off onion-domed steeples
Drink from the glacier-purified brook to
Twirl my flowered Dirndl at Salamanca’s feast
Catching red embers of fire masters
And repeat again colored stripes of home

Photo credit: jessgibbsphotography.com