blackbirdonline journalFall 2009  Vol. 8  No. 2
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GERALD STERN

I

                              XVI
                              And I. had a mother who washed her hands three times
                              before she did the dishes and used in her wisdom,
                              only Ivory soap though she did kosher
                              when her mother lived with her but it was
(G.)                        all about a home for the lonely one
                              he called a refuge that they carried from
                              place to place by the staves which were inside
                              the golden rings and they couldn’t be removed
                              and so on, and as for the shakers they both had wings
                              and looked at each other’s faces and even more
                              compulsive were the tables and candlesticks
                              on which they put the bread.
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