MIT Poetry

Reading the Newspaper By the Open Window

Nadia Herman Colburn

The world that is alone in its beauty

with no consolation—

the black walnut tree
the double-oleander

the goats, always-hungry––

Who hasn’t been seduced?

Who is the wonderful me of happiness?

Of forgetfulness,
of horror,
that must be a part?

As if “all”
were a word in another language.

That no one speaks.

Nadia Herman Colburn, a Lecturer in Literature this year, has published poetry in many magazines, including The American Poetry Review, The Yale Review, The Kenyon Review, and The New Orleans Review, where the above poem appeared in 2007. She is currently finishing a memoir about pregnancy and early motherhood.

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