Oh could we climb where Moses stood
And view the landscape o’er
Not Father’s bells – nor Factories,
Could scare us any more!
–Emily Dickinson
Without being
consumed
carrying nothing
but fire they
burn running
burn escaping
fire with
fire out of
cradles beds
schools churches
synagogues mosques
burning across
fields on fire
that is how
they flee
from Mariupol
Donetsk Kharkiv
Dnipro Mykolaiv
Kherson Kyiv Irpin
westward into
Poland
Romania Hungary
fire with
fire over
mountains
rivers oceans
breathfire
fleshfire
from silence out
from eyes ears lips
broken pain of
teeth muscle bone
that saw
that cannot
unsee
that cannot
unhear
that cannot
unspeak
if only drink
if only eat
could swallow
could nourish
song of
light of
desire
fire sing
fire lullaby
if night
if touch
swaddled into
dreams of
Assistant Professor of English Judith Rosenberg has taught at Hunter College (NYC), UMass-Boston, and L'Institut Catholique de Paris. Judith has a PhD, Brandeis University, MA Indiana University, BA Boston University. She conducts an online workshop for publishing poets and divides her time between NYC and Cape Cod.
As judged by Alberto Ríos and Gerald Stern, Judith’s poems received awards in The MacGuffin's Poet Hunt Contest. Her poems have also appeared in The Atlanta Review (International Competition Finalist), Crosswinds, The Antigonish Review, The Louisville Review, Paterson Literary Review.