Susan Rich

The K Word—

from kikel, for circle as signature
drawn by Eastern European Jews

who as they entered at Ellis Island
protested that the X looked kind

of like Christ’s famous Roman cross.
The first time I actually heard the

word was in the dorm’s kitchenette:
Massachusetts, freshman year—

offered like an illicit kiss, kismet—
by an upperclassman I admired.

Kikes have little horns under their caps,
Marianne offered. Her assertion

backlit in September’s window
of burning red and russet leaves.

We lingered over the teakettle.
What more might I have said?

So sure her truth was true—
I felt my own skull for signs.

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Seattle poet Susan Rich is the author of four poetry books, most recently, Cloud Pharmacy (shortlisted for the Julie Suk Prize) and The Alchemist’s Kitchen (Finalist for the Washington State Book Award). She has earned an Artists Trust Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, the PEN USA Award for Poetry, the Times (of London) Literary Supplement Award and three 4Culture Grants. Rich's publications include Harvard Review, New England Review, Poetry Northwest and World Literature Today. She has two collections forthcoming: A Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems (Salmon Press) and Blue Atlas (Red Hen Press).