to speak (though so naive!), we began to exchange
arguments, articles, links — the deep anchor
of our positions, the draw. Our sallies
like submarine incursions drawing fire to test
perimeter defenses. Her responses
always rapid-fire rehearsed retorts
until I asked: You’re okay
with 526 children murdered? A mother, she paused.
As though long submerged in an air pocket
along the ocean’s floor, this response took its time
to break the surface, reach my ear: Yes.
That pause
so deafening
ended maneuvers.
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Susan Eisenberg — poet, visual artist, and oral historian — is a Resident Scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center where she directs the On Equal Terms Project focused on employment equity. She is poetry editor of Labor, and her most recent poetry book is Stanley’s Girl (Cornell) and most recent art installation exhibition was at the AFL-CIO in Washington DC.
Photo credit: Estelle Disch