Published Poetry

Everytime

poem by Freddi Gralle

published in Macrame Literary Journal, 2024

I love you
is the response I have to erase every time you text me something

every time you text me something
my heart does an extra warm pump
a poem about lonely puppy
a picture of a deserted melancholy beach
a song plucked from my subconscious, driven through the Spotify industrial complex and mysteriously finding its way back to my sentimental soul

I tell myself it’s not romantic
I tell myself you text the same to all the boys as well you’re just an emotional guy

I erased the I love you with my pulsing heart and manage a
‘so cool’ instead

SIERRA LEONE, 1982

poem by Friederike “Freddi” Gralle

(published in Daniil Pashkoff Prize 2016)

The smoke of the fire didn't reach the garden the orange golden flames only teased our palm trees, I wasn't scared my parents still the effortless rulers of our simple cement house in the West-African village my brother - the gentle historian - designed maps of even more exotic continents, drew up a chart  for the waves, named all of our trees him, too, the ruler of his world

Our life without clocks, the potholes  on the roads made every trip unbearably long the white van stuck on the riverbank again, this time becoming part of the baptismal service  church members in their flowing robes surrounded us with hymns waiting for my father to put on his collar

Lead me to the Waters

Through the side mirror I watched eating my oats with powdered milk and water, listening to my brother  recite his encyclopedia of world history my mother with the other women in their cotton dresses splashed with planets of bold colors

I climb out to sit on the steps of the bus watching my dad place his large warm hands on their brown foreheads  and lower them into the water washing away the dust from the road and the confusion of sin

a woman grabbed my mother's hand the whisper of wars from my brother  my naked feet dangling, unconcerned  if my world was here or there

Untitled No. 1

poem by Freddi Gralle

to be published in up-coming issue of Litbop magazine, 2025