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Sally Bliumis-Dunn

Plume
For the Child Molester
For the Child Molester
November 10, 2014 Bliumis-Dunn Sally

For the Child Molester

 

Let him sleep right through it—

thin syringe, everlasting injection.

 

Then let it hang

like an old wool sock in a closet.

 

Let him wake like a child

from night terror,

clatter down the stairs,

 

rush to the toilet

reach for himself with shaking

thumb and forefinger

around the soft base of the shaft.

 

Let him not even sense the warmth

of urine as it leaves him.

 

Let him feel like he’s touching

a soft dead bird

in that gray bathroom light.

 

Let him hunger for his hunger

the rest of his life.

 

 

 

 

 

Sally Bliumis-Dunn teaches at the 92nd Street Y and offers writing consultations. Her poems have appeared in the New York Times, Paris Review, PBS NewsHour, Plume, Poetry London, Prairie Schooner, RATTLE, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day and Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry. In 2002, she was a finalist for the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize. Her third book, Echolocation, was published by Plume Editions/MadHat Press in March of 2018 and was shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Award, a longlist finalist for the Julie Suk Award and Runner Up for the Poetry By the Sea Best Book Award.

Plume: Issue #41 November 2014

By the same author

Titanic
Titanic
Some of the shoes
FORGIVENESS/ACCEPTANCE, Sally Bliumis-Dunn
FORGIVENESS/ACCEPTANCE, Sally Bliumis-Dunn
Issue #130 June 2022
For this feature, I solicited work from poets I admire that show this kind of psychological transformation and asked each writer to describe it as best they could.
Jewish American Women Poets by Sally Bliumis-Dunn
Jewish American Women Poets by Sally Bliumis-Dunn
Plume Issue #124 December 2021
For this PLUME feature, I chose four Jewish American women poets, Jennifer Barber, Jessica Greenbaum, Judy Katz and Nomi Stone.