A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
For R, Who Asked
No poetry today.
Instead, this unlovely
answer—I am tired
of explaining this
sorrow, this dread.
This morning, a post
on FB by a law professor
in Sicily: Everyone should
unfriend their Jewish friends,
even the good ones. He calls
on everyone to isolate
us wherever we are.
Some days the absence
of metaphor is the only
metaphor. I refuse
imagery today. I refuse
the solace of music.
I send this with apologies,
dear friend and yes, with love.
Susan Aizenberg
Susan Aizenberg’s newest collection is A Walk with Frank O’Hara (UNMP/Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series 2024). She’s also author of Quiet City (BkMk 2015), and Muse (Crab Orchard Poetry Series 2002). Recent poems appear and are forthcoming in Plume, Nine Mile, On the Seawall, Red Letters, Minyan, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Her awards include a Crab Orchard Poetry Series Award, the VCU Levis Reading Prize, a Distinguished Artist Fellowship and two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Book Award in Poetry, and the Mari Sandoz Award from the Nebraska Library Association. Aizenberg is professor emerita of English/CW at Creighton University and now lives and writes in Iowa City. She can be reached at susanaizenberg.com.
