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Prairie Schooner 79.2 (2005) 100-101



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Two Poems

Women In Black

for Marilyn Hacker
We stand the wind in our black coats. We stand
our vow. In furious love we stand the shoppers'
logoed bags. A woman passes, wraps
herself hand over hand in mink. She shuts

us out: won't look. A boyman, blond,
soft as a dandelion's seeding head,
smiles his shyness. Guys drive by –
and one leans out and makes a fist and yells:

Nuke the dykes, Nuke Saddam, Nuke 'em all!
Those hits quick slaps across a woman's face –
and now admit the truth: I made that man
from what I can't deny. Just as I made,
beside the dandelion boy, a girl –
who both slide into our line beside me.

Unarmed Bodyguard: You Will Hear the Lutes

for Dr. Saravanamuttu
Because when they came for her son she saw their faces,
I pulled on the tee with the logo in three languages
and walked into the dirt street with this woman [End Page 100]
they wanted to kill. We knew they were watching,
they could shoot her and leave me alive, or shoot us both –
either would prove they could kill anyone they wanted –
and they needed that fleeting bit of power, they had

so little. Blossoms of Plumeria opened
their mouths. The perfume sang its faint song,
and I heard and took her hand, a thing we didn't do –
our hands might make them mad, anger's a drug
and a turn on – and I said I'm scared. The world

can tear. Our hands, the glare, that street so hot
and white, the light a blare – and here a man
with just one hand thrust out his begging bowl.
Before you die, they say, give something away:

the tinder of our coins flared up and caught,
a fiery meal he'd eat with that one hand.
And did they watch us linking hands again,
passing the kiosk where they probably bought
cigarettes? God, she said – she was Catholic – loves
our courage and loves our fear. He loves both things.
This woman who was not my lover but the Beloved –
come to me in the flesh here on the earth.

Marilyn Krysl has published seven books of poetry and three books of stories. Her work has been anthologized in several collections including, Best American Short Stories 2000, O. Henry Prize Stories, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology.


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