Samantha Zighelboim's debut collection, THE FAT SONNETS, is forthcoming from Argos Books in 2018. Other poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Boston Review, The Guardian, Sixth Finch, PEN Poetry Series, Stonecutter, and Circumference: A Journal of Poetry in Translation, among others. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University, and lives in New York City.
Fat Dream #14
Because the Mountain Has a Shadow
Fat Dream #14
In the dream of two sunny- one on each was similar pressed into I remember worth it be- was going to Then I was egg wounds I smoked a With a plastic I began trying To my delight seamlessly my shins. another, they that perfect and semi- They wereI got a tattoo side-up eggs, shin. The pain to a sunburn being with a ballpoint pen. thinking it’d be cause my capri game be on a whole new level. home dressing the open with witch hazel & lotion. bowl. I got really hungry. spatula from the kitchen to peel them off me. the spatula slipped between the eggs and First one then came off easily, with slightly-browned crisped bottom. the best eggs I ever ate.Because the Mountain Has a Shadow
I watch TED talks on the treadmill: how to responsibly practice emotional hygiene, the neurochemistry of getting dumped, dogs and cats with depression and OCD, how dieting and exercise can cure our national traumas. When a man on a dark train platform says to me that the smell of my sweat makes him excited, I know theoretically I can briskly walk away at exactly 4.2mph. Because that’s what I’d have to do. Make myself fit enough to hide. He says hey there, big girl. I tell him a proverb I heard once: because a mountain has a shadow, it can move. He thinks that’s real cute. I increase my speed. One talk is titled “’Am I Dying?’ The Honest Answer.” Another, “How to Grow a Tiny Forest Anywhere.” Of course I am dying and in my room I am sprouting a grove of miniature Douglas firs.Samantha Zighelboim's debut collection, THE FAT SONNETS, is forthcoming from Argos Books in 2018. Other poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Boston Review, The Guardian, Sixth Finch, PEN Poetry Series, Stonecutter, and Circumference: A Journal of Poetry in Translation, among others. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University, and lives in New York City.
