Monday, October 20, 2014

NO EYE FOR AN EYE

by Judith Terzi


Above: David Greenglass, with his sister, Ethel Rosenberg. (Image source: NY Times.) Known as "the spy that turned his family in," Greenglass died in July 2014. His death was only recently announced.


For he was ninety-two and she dead 
at thirty-seven     five
shocks before sundown to put her 
out at Sing Sing
No remorse from this man who 
stole his sister's breath 
to save his wife's     his kids'     Did he 
ever imagine that currents 
would flow through his own flesh 
and blood     smoke 
rushing from his sister's head
like a geyser?     Five jolts 
before the Jewish sabbath began     

For he was free before his fifteen years 
were up     For he was free 
to change his name     like Ethel's children 
had to     And all the while     
Ike     lounging in August fragrance     
on a balcony of air     under 
the dome of a red umbrella   its spokes 
taut as the narrowing of mind


Judith Terzi is the author of Sharing Tabouli and Ghazal for a Chambermaid (Finishing Line). Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in BorderSenses, The Raintown Review, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s & 70s (She Writes), TRIVIA: Voices of Feminism, Wide Awake: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond (Beyond Baroque), and elsewhere. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and Web.