What form
do you ask for
pointing at me
with your scorn-
raised brow
you clutch your
coxcomb velvet robe
with your left hand
ringed married to God
in cuffed surplice
and say: so shall
you burn
What dunce cap
bows me down
cracked hands
clasped over
tunic of pale yolk
the Jews’ color
I was made to wear
for shame
I am ready
to renounce nothing
even should they...
What standing
crone \ what blood-
bearded henchman
crouched down \
hooded grimace
clenched fist
behind pleading
old man \ capped
gumming:
swear nothing
by fire
contributor
contributor
Sharon Dolin is the author of six books of poetry; Hitchcock Blonde: A Cinematic Memoir (Terra Nova Press, 2020); and two books of translation, most recently the prizewinning Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems of Gemma Gorga (Saturnalia Books, 2021). She is a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Literature Fellow, and her new book, Imperfect Present, is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2022. She lives in New York City, where she is an associate editor at Barrow Street Inc.
