Alicia Ostriker

Q&A
January 12, 2015 Ostriker Alicia

Q&A

 

When you take off your mask, what is your true address

 

If you had a choice, which tree

would you like to be

which Beethoven symphony

 

What is the color of Robert Burns’ red red rose

 

Which is the most difficult of the ten commandments

 

Did you take Home Economics in high school, or did you take Shop

 

Who is the one who hurt you the very most? Was this in grade school

was it at home in the kitchen

in  the forest glade of bottles of beer

 

Why did they do it

 

Why could you never prevent  them hurting you

you in your jacket of anger, your                    unlaced shoes of loss

 

Whom did you hurt the very most

while considering yourself

the innocent victim

 

Why do you believe you were born in a death camp

 

When you are freezing, does it help to bite your nails

 

Do you really still shoplift

 

Why are you so fond of dancing   do you love your body that much

 

When we throw away our handcuffs, will they be buried in sand

 

Do you want your children to spend an average three hours a day

tethered to the tube

through which an entire culture feeds them lies

 

When you were alive, did you like having money

 

Did you like sex

 

Well, did you like it anyway?

 

Which train are we on   is there a quiet car   is there a car for weepers

for weapons

for widows

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry. She was called “America’s most fiercely honest poet,” by Progressive. In 2015, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets