Three Poems by Samantha Zighelboim Copyright 2006

Dream #1

While a white lily unfurls a white lie about a heatless and heartless summer, we are sweating under city lights on a rooftop somewhere in Manhattan. Above us the cool odor of extinct evenings perfumes the lily-white starlight that is not as bright as the mascara smudges under your eyes, though frighteningly close. There are white lilies and white envelopes containing blackened letters sprouting up from the concrete beneath your feet and you hop around like hopscotch avoiding the poisonous weeds.

Two Dreams about Emily Dickinson

You are tending to your black-eyed
orchids and sticky-stemmed gladiolas
and I am hiding behind a whispering
blackberry bush hoping you will prune
the wrong branch and discover me there,
waiting.

Somewhere it begins to rain.
You are laughing because you’ve forgotten
something behind the gardenias and I say,
no, silly! you haven’t forgotten a thing—it’s
all right there in that puddle below your
window.

II.

In the same room that bore the entire body
of your poems we are laying on a sofette
upholstered in white linens and your breath
is thick against my neck as you weave
quatrains into my curls.

The lace skirts underneath your petticoat
Are peeking through and I am fixated
on the milky-white crevice inside your
left knee where I know your next poem
will be written.

I’m Not Saying

I’m not

saying

that I

don’t

still remember

you

not

remembering

me.

Neither

here

nor

there

would your

letters

not be

restless,

not

marching

out of shoeboxes

like autumn

without

fires

without

ash--

I’m not

saying

because I

didn’t

say at all.

Samantha Zighelboim is a Venezuelan-American poet and translator. She recently graduated with a BFA in Writing for Publication, Performance and Media from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where she specialized in poetry, short fiction and creative translation. Previously, Sam studied at El Instituto de Diseño de Caracas in Caracas, Venezuela, majoring in graphic communications. She is the managing editor of Rattapallax, a journal of international poetry. Her translations have been published in Rattapallax. She currently lives in New York City.

Copyright 2006, Samantha Zighelboim. © This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.