when finances don’t make sense
to a toddler and you’re no good at math
can’t count how much you’ll have to pay
on the invisible tuition waiver
when you’re son’s happy to live
in a cardboard box until its roof
caves in and the rain and snow
soak his bed too cold to bear
even for the small boy who swims
in puddles all winter and thrusts
his hands elbows deep into iced-over fountains
when you’ve been able to give him
so much of you these last few years
you’ve lost count and the time
not with him you’ve spent
with countless words
you hope and doubt
will shape his future
when those who will
refuse to hear or read refuse
to listen to what the hundred
thousand like you spend
their lives on
words as life
and life as words and words
still rendering you
powerless
because no matter
how you slice it—the golden delicious
your son ate this morning
with its tender seeds and apple heart
just small enough to fit
his growing mouth
the teeth and tongue expand
devouring new words by the hour—
you would never let your son
go hungry
READ MORE
IU Officials: Tax Reform Bill Could Reduce Grad Student Enrollment [Indiana Public Media]
Graduate Students Worry Taxes Will Skyrocket Under House Tax Bill [Lansing State Journal]
The GOP Tax Bill Got a Triple Whammy of Brutal Reviews [Business Insider]
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach emigrated from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine as a Jewish refugee when she was six years old. She holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon and is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania where her research focuses on contemporary American poetry about the Holocaust. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and TENT Conferences as well as the Auschwitz Jewish Center. Julia is the author of The Bear Who Ate the Stars (Split Lip Press, 2014) and her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, and Sixth Finch, among others. Julia is Editor of Construction Magazine and when not busy chasing her toddler around the playgrounds of Philadelphia, she also writes a blog about motherhood.
Photo by Brandi Redd.
