On Memory and Survival
My grandmother
hid butter in a boot,
felt cash in the sugar,
what there was of it.
Trauma was radiant
and preferred the chandelier,
the kibbutz of crystals blaze
to blaze in their brief chimes.
So we know already
about the bulldozer and the bodies,
the myriad resemblances of dust,
her two brothers lost to wind,
and on the other side,
these modern failures
of amnesia, these burglars
in their terracotta pots.
Alec Hershman is the author of Permanent and Wonderful Storage (Seven Kitchens, 2019), winner of the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize and The Egg Goes Under (Seven Kitchens, 2017). He has received awards from the KHN Center for the Arts, The Jentel Foundation, Playa, The Virginia Creative Center for the Arts, and The Institute for Sustainable Living, Art, and Natural Design. He lives in Michigan where he teaches writing and literature to college students. You can learn more at alechershmanpoetry.com.