the handsome stranger

who was this young handsome stranger 

standing in nonchalant self assurance

calm confident debonair 

like a 1940s movie star

who had women licking their lips

and sighing

when he passed by

cigarette smoke trailing

clinging to his dark wavy hair 

his black wool coat

and the fingers of his black leather gloves 

who was that young boy 

who stanched his tears 

when his mother had died 

and then stanched them again 

when his father brought home 

this dreamy young thing

and said here’s your new mother

who was that young boy 

who ran away from home

with his kid brother

never to see his family again 

who was that young boy 

who resurfaced as a german soldier 

making a deal with my grandfather 

to marry my mother

what became of his missing years 

how did he learn to read and write

how did he learn to count

did he even get a chance 

to do what young boys do

catching frogs in the pond

fishing in the river

throwing snowballs at his friends

pulling his sisters’ braids 

picking berries in the woods

sneaking cigarettes

and looking at dirty pictures in the outhouse

was there a special girlfriend

whose kisses he stole when no one was looking 

i never knew that man or that boy

instead i knew the old bald man

with a beer belly

whose skin would turn a rich deep chestnut

in the summer 

who spoke very broken english 

yet still charmed the ladies at the bank 

and had factory maids competing 

for his attention and the candy in his pocket

who wanted to be left alone

when he drank too much

which was often 

who smoked too many unfiltered

camel cigarettes 

that finally stopped his heart 

he never talked about his past

his secrets were buried with him