Shulamith Speaks
Jehanne Dubrow
It’s also speech—those words his body chalks
on me, and I on him, our sheet-white terms 
which need no voice to occupy a room.
I can talk about his collarbone for weeks
but don’t. I’d rather touch his face, become
his skin’s interpreter. Why should I shake
our sleep with languages? What breaks
inside the mechanism when our limbs
are labeled Arm or Leg?
The hinges creak.
Our flesh-and-blood machine which used to hum,
self-lubricating, metrical, will jam
where wheels collide with wheels: the axle spokes,
the teeth, the slot and corresponding hook,
not thrumming ecstasy, but stopped and dumb.
Jehanne Dubrow is a PhD student in creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, Tikkun, and the New England Review.
© 2006 by Zeek Magazine and the author. This article may not be distributed for commercial purposes without the express written permission of Zeek Magazine (). Reprints and other distributions must contain this copyright notice.
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