while everything falls apart, imagine how you’ll teach your son he is an animal too

as he hugs the dog with his whole body

his weight on top of her not knowing 

his own strength or knowing it

far too well 

as he weaves his arms 

into a snare around her neck to show it

and after he’s thrown all his food 

to the ground or hovered it

right in front of her nose 

he yells no eat no eat iya making the n

in front of her name silent 

because he’s still learning

to speak or already knows silence 

helps her hear the no’s as harsher

already finding it easy 

to claim something as his, my iya, everything 

as not hers or yours and how easy it is 

to learn superiority without being taught it 

or have you been teaching him all along

how easily he loves her and knows too 

he is above that kind of love 

 
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach emigrated from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine as a Jewish refugee when she was six years old. She holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon and is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where her research focuses on contemporary American poetry about the Holocaust. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and TENT Conferences as well as the Auschwitz Jewish Center. Julia is the author of The Bear Who Ate the Stars (Split Lip Press, 2014) and her recent poems appear in Best New Poets, American Poetry Review, and Nashville Review, among others. Julia is also Editor-in-Chief of Construction Magazine (www.constructionlitmag.com) and when not busy chasing her toddler around the playgrounds of Philadelphia, she writes a blog about motherhood. (https://otherwomendonttellyou.wordpress.com)

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