Adrienne Rich(b. 1929)
Sonnet 8
A woman wired in memories
stands by a house collapsed in dust
her son beaten in prison grandson
shot in the stomach daughter
organizing the camps an aunt's unpublished poems
grandparents' photographs a bridal veil
phased into smoke up the obliterate air
With whom shall she let down and tell her story
Who shall hear her to the end
standing if need be for hours in wind
that swirls the levelled dust
in sun that beats through their scarfed hair
at the lost gate by the shattered prickly pear
Who must hear her to the end
but the woman forbidden to forget
the blunt groats 0 freezing in the wooden ladlehulled grain
old winds dusting the ovens with light snow