Esther Altshul Helfgott: Poems

Driving Home from Mother's House Sister Father's Skull  At Sixteen  Dream  The Old Woman  If I Could Stop the Words  At the Hospital  The Psychiatrist and the Poet Dear Pat

FATHER'S SKULL

I see my father's
skull lying on the ground.
Mouth wide open. Eyes gorged out.
I know it is his.
I kick the other skulls away from my father's.
I want to be alone with him.
When the policemen leave,
I will retrieve my father's skull.
I will carry it home with me.
I will hold it in my arms as I rock myself to sleep.
Mother has been gone since the last war.
My brothers and sisters are also dead.
So are my cousins.
Father's skull is all that's left.
 

"Father's Skull" was originally published in Chrysanthemum, Vol. IV, No. 3,  Summer 2000

Driving Home from Mother's House Sister Father's Skull  At Sixteen  Dream  The Old Woman  If I Could Stop the Words  At the Hospital  The Psychiatrist and the Poet Dear Pat

Esther Altshul Helfgott is a poet and independent scholar working on a biography of Edith Buxbaum. She earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington with a thesis on the politics and poetry of Holocaust poet, Irena Klepfisz. Esther's poems and articles have appeared in numerous periodicals, and she is the author of The Homeless One: A Poem in Many Voices (Kota Press, 2000). In her work as a writing teacher, Esther helps poets and writers bring their authentic voices to the page. She can be reached at:

eahelfgott2@comcast.net 

Esther Altshul Helfgott's Home Page  and see also

www.analysands.homestead.com

Esther Altshul Helfgott's neue Website >THE EDITH BUXBAUM JOURNAL<