But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him
[Sisera] and drove the peg into his temple.
—Judges 4:21
Because it’s about 6 inches but gets sold as 9.
No one can live on cardboard soup.
Because you can wrap your hand around it, feel ready.
No one thought to bring a gun.
Because it is hot dog shaped, rocket shaped, shaped
like the Washington Monument.
Because it is harder than the earth or a temple, or at least
it thinks it is.
In WWI the commanders, those bombastic fools, sent waves
of row-boated yahoos to their death by the bloody thousands.
Because it has a point to make.
Because it turns a woman into a “phallic murderer.”
Sometimes it’s right to disturb the world.
Haven’t we all read Bleak House? Someone explodes.
Deborah Bacharach is the author of two full length poetry collections Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Collections, 2015). Her poems, book reviews, and essays have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, New Letters and The Writer’s Chronicle among many others. Find out more about her at DeborahBacharach.com.
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