Poem: My father’s stamp album

The women who licked the Polish stamps

 were gassed in Auschwitz.

Israel canceled Palestine 

just as their last stamps were canceled.

Algeria threw out the French

along with their cafes and croissants.

Around that time, the Chinese 

sent their intellectuals into the fields 

to eat Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.

Not to be outdone, the Soviets

fertilized Siberian soil with their convicts’ bones.

Meanwhile, the Prague Spring 

flipped back into a Hungarian winter 

as the queen ate tarts in Buckingham Palace.