Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Bright Lord and Bad Guys

Award-winning poetry translator shares two of her own poems

Bright Lord (there are muscles everywhere)

  • I am tapping the pulse of the faucet water
  • and winding a string of light from the rain gutter
  • I’m pressing the window glass which presumes
  • tension between inner and outer
  • my bright-toothed lord, it hurts
  • the fatigue of clicking future tense
  • into the present past, the stiffened tongue
  • on my watch face, my daughter cries
  • when she sees the kitchen
  • clock she cannot tell
  • that kind of time. And compared
  • to a water drop
  • the screech of the street cats
  • and bus breaks—your touch
  • is predictable, my lord, and
  • compared to the painted
  • highway, most irregular,
  • and compared to the pears,
  • bitter, and compared to the baby carriages
  • rolling across the baggage compartment
  • of the bus, their mothers praying from little
  • instruction books, hands held
  • in the rubber loops above them,
  • full of inadvisable faith.

Bad Guys

Sponsored
Sponsored
  • Did God make the bad guys, too? My daughter asks me.
  • We have just read about Pharoah and hardening hearts,
  • we’ve just read about Hamman.
  • I am trying to figure out what the pre-
  • 1967 borders of this country are, and where
  • the key to the bomb shelter is. I tell her
  • “Everyone is born neither good nor bad.
  • They decide what they will become.”
  • She looks at me unconvinced. I am trying
  • to show her the difference between sharing
  • your toys with your friends, though you don’t
  • want to, and letting anyone touch your private
  • body when you don’t want them to.
  • “Will you be a good guy or a bad guy
  • when you grow up?” I ask. “I’m not
  • a guy,” she says.
Marcela Sulak

Marcela Sulak’s third poetry collection and first memoir are forthcoming with Black Lawrence Press, where she’s published Decency and Immigrant. She’s co-edited Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres. A 2019 NEA Translation Fellow, her fourth translation, Twenty Girls to Envy Me. Selected Poems of Orit Gidali was nominated for a 2017 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She hosts the podcast “Israel in Translation,” edits The Ilanot Review, and is an Associate Professor at Bar-Ilan University.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Drinking Sudden Death on All Saint’s Day in Quixote’s church-themed interior

Seeking solace, spiritual and otherwise

Bright Lord (there are muscles everywhere)

  • I am tapping the pulse of the faucet water
  • and winding a string of light from the rain gutter
  • I’m pressing the window glass which presumes
  • tension between inner and outer
  • my bright-toothed lord, it hurts
  • the fatigue of clicking future tense
  • into the present past, the stiffened tongue
  • on my watch face, my daughter cries
  • when she sees the kitchen
  • clock she cannot tell
  • that kind of time. And compared
  • to a water drop
  • the screech of the street cats
  • and bus breaks—your touch
  • is predictable, my lord, and
  • compared to the painted
  • highway, most irregular,
  • and compared to the pears,
  • bitter, and compared to the baby carriages
  • rolling across the baggage compartment
  • of the bus, their mothers praying from little
  • instruction books, hands held
  • in the rubber loops above them,
  • full of inadvisable faith.

Bad Guys

Sponsored
Sponsored
  • Did God make the bad guys, too? My daughter asks me.
  • We have just read about Pharoah and hardening hearts,
  • we’ve just read about Hamman.
  • I am trying to figure out what the pre-
  • 1967 borders of this country are, and where
  • the key to the bomb shelter is. I tell her
  • “Everyone is born neither good nor bad.
  • They decide what they will become.”
  • She looks at me unconvinced. I am trying
  • to show her the difference between sharing
  • your toys with your friends, though you don’t
  • want to, and letting anyone touch your private
  • body when you don’t want them to.
  • “Will you be a good guy or a bad guy
  • when you grow up?” I ask. “I’m not
  • a guy,” she says.
Marcela Sulak

Marcela Sulak’s third poetry collection and first memoir are forthcoming with Black Lawrence Press, where she’s published Decency and Immigrant. She’s co-edited Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres. A 2019 NEA Translation Fellow, her fourth translation, Twenty Girls to Envy Me. Selected Poems of Orit Gidali was nominated for a 2017 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She hosts the podcast “Israel in Translation,” edits The Ilanot Review, and is an Associate Professor at Bar-Ilan University.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Undocumented workers break for Trump in 2024

Illegals Vote for Felon
Next Article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader