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Zaftik

Zaftik

Marge Piercy

A sheyne meydele - and they
didn't mean shaped like a pencil,
a girl trying to be invisible
more secure the less there
is of her.

Eat, eat, they said, so long
as there is something to eat.
I remember weeks of oatmeal,
white and red beans, potatoes
dug from the yard.

Four days on a stew. The last
day nothing but broth
thickened with flour. We
made soup with any bones
left over.

Young women look at me:
they see flesh, the evil
of ample flesh, indulgence,
sin personified. I cup
my breasts in my hands,

I stroke the risen dough
of my belly and I smile. I smile
in the comfort
of enough, now more
than enough.

Prairie Schooner, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Spring 2007), p. 59

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Marge Piercy’s eighteenth book of poetry is The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems 1980-2010 (Knopf). She has published seventeen novels, most recently Sex Wars, and her books Dance the Eagle to Sleep and Vida (both PM Press) were recently republished with new introductions. Her memoir is Sleeping with Cats (Harper Perennial). Her work has been translated into 19 languages and she has given more than 450 readings, speeches, and workshops.

Marge Piercy

Ira Wood