Sharon Olds
THE ISSUES
(Rhodesia, 1978)
Just don't tell me about the issues.
I can see the pale spider-belly head of the
newborn who lies on the lawn, the web of
veins at the surface of her scalp, her skin
grey and gleaming, the clean line of the bayonet down the center of her chest.
I see her mother's face, beaten and beaten into the shape of a plant,
a cactus with grey spines and broad dark maroon blooms.
I see her arm stretched out across her baby,
wrist resting, heavily, still, across the
tiny ribs.
Don't speak to me about
politics. I've got eyes, man.
Location: New York, New York Books: Satan Says, The Dead and the Living, The Gold Cell, The Father, The Wellspring, and Blood, Tin, Straw Awards: New York State Poet Laureate from 1998-2000. Other: She teaches at NYU and helps run the NYU workshop at a state hospital for the severely physically challenged.
