Ransacked

Iris Goldstein Fodor

Word Count 92

I don’t want to remember how crazy you were.

How when I wouldn’t take you back

You broke into my Woodstock country house

and smashed every gift you ever bought me.

The poster from Sicily torn from the wall,

Pieces of ancient clay sculpture scattered about,

the wooden salad bowl from Brazil split in two.

Our prized Venetian glass in pieces 

covering the kerosene soaked bed.

Then, you called me in the city, 

Shouting into the phone:

“Wait till you see what I’ve done.

Now, you’ll know how much I love you!”

*

Iris is a Professor Emerita, NYU, is a retired academic and psychotherapist, known for published writings about feminism and women’s mental health. She is also a photographer. A recent focus is on memoir with poems and stories from a Bronx childhood. She has a son and a daughter and three granddaughters. She lives on the Upper West Side and Woodstock, New York.