H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

JAMES RUGGIA

An Old German Happened By...

During the Second World War he flew for the Luftwaffe. He still

couldn’t shake the memory of an old black-clad woman running into

the sea to avoid his strafing of a beach in Crete. After the war,

with Germany in ashes, he threw his medals into a river and

remained stone silent for two years. He often thought about a

woman he met during the campaign in the Ukraine. She kept three

pianos in her bomb blasted home; one French, one Austrian and one

Russian. She played Mozart in the ruins, the war all around her.

Perhaps, I offered, you were in love. “I never touched her!” his

head snapped violently. Though he allowed, after awhile, that

he’d dreamt about it once or twice.