Bethlehem

Colleen O’Brien

 

i

Speak back

to speak back
idiotically
 

ii

o but not idiot:

subordinate

A tale told by
subordinate

full of sound
 

iii

Speak back

(ba dá, da dá, da dá, da dá)
And dust is for a time
 

iv

in wrist to hydrate me in childbirth (vomited my last meal, mug of milk warmed in microwave, two a.m. winter dark kitchen; now blood pressure low)
 

v

Speak back

to speak back
geriatrically

till the end came
in the end came

close of a long day
 

vi

o but no

you tell her

no. no. no. no. no-no-no-no
no. no. no. no. no-no-no-no
no. no. no. no. no.

her love belongs to me
 

vii

patronym, the Ní
shortened form of Iníon Uí:

daughter of descendant of
 

viii

That’s right, say my name
can’t leave the king—can’t leave the king
 

ix

Cold surface
Iron is iron till it is rust
Don’t hurt me now, don’t hurt me now
 

x

what followed wasn’t, now you see
a star

at all a star wasn’t

what you see you
followed
 

xi

back amniotically
into the lukewarm tub
shreds of clotted blood and meconium

back where was seized
body before name
 

xii

speak you never speak

 
 

Colleen O’Brien is the author of a chapbook, “Spool in the Maze,” from DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Fence, Kenyon Review Online, Denver Quarterly, West Branch, and other journals.

 

This poem borrows and distorts lines from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Marianne Moore’s “In Distrust of Merits,” Samuel Beckett’s “Rockaby,” The Zombies’ “Tell Her No,” Ghostface Killah’s remix of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good,” and T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.”