Maybe It’s Only the Monotony

of these long scorching days

but today my daughter

is truly exasperating—

Stop it! I shout—or I’ll—

and I twist her little pinked arm

slowly,

calibrating my ferocity—

You can’t hurt me you can’t hurt me!

She’s so defiant, glowering,

glaring at me—

but frightened,

her eyes bright with tears—

See, I’m not even crying!

I see. But it’s the angel

of extermination

I see, shining

in his black trappings,

and turning ecstatically

toward him, a little Jewish girl

tempts him

to play his game of massacre.

—after Vittorio Sereni

Copyright Credit: Gail Mazur, “Maybe It’s Only the Monotony” from Zeppo's First Wife: New & Selected Poems (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005). Copyright © 2001 by Gail Mazur. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Source: They Can't Take That Away from Me (The University of Chicago Press, 2001)