"Abortions Never Let You Forget"

-Gwendolyn Brooks

It is true, those unborn babies hang around
the mother that expelled them
much longer than regular children do
tweaking on their dresses and begging
to be bought something, to be fed again,
to be held to be loved.
And sometimes I turn to mine,
gather them up, resigned -
my arms full of their absence.

Performance

I dance
between
your words
as if they were
bamboo poles
clicking together
once
twice
then the fists
hit the floor
and I slip in
between bamboo
before
they slam
together
again

Crackpots

Its the lunatics who attract me
especially the ones who read secret
messages in the newspaper, get bulletins
from birds, signals from the plumbing.
I keep thinking maybe they
are receiving important communications
just outside my auditory range.
Like today, the drill whistling into my jaw
during an implant procedure
I thought I heard a whispering voice
reassuring me that there are benefits
to the degeneration of flesh -
the freedom of the mind to leave itself.

HOME

Grudges

There are wounds
time can only congeal
makes the weals
appear a cross-section
in the archeological museum
revealing where it was the earth
moved

Here, let me show you a smile
someone gave me once
before he turned away. I remember the day,
the betrayal - it is always
a scar I finger
under the skin.

Come girl your memory for pain
is like a mother just after
birth - a giggle of delight
at the emerging of life.

About the Author

Karen Alkalay-Gut was born in England, raised in Rochester, New York, and has lived in Israel for almost 30 years. She teaches English at Tel Aviv University.