A Few Words in the Mother Tongue Quotes

“& they kind of probe about your future & if you have a will or
why you bother to accumulate all that stuff or what you plan
to do with your old age & aren't you scared about being put
away somewhere or found on your bathroom floor dead after
your downstairs neighbor has smelled you out but then of course
you don't have to worry of who goes first though of course
you know couples live longer for they have something to live
for & i try to explain i live for myself even when in love but
it's a hard concept to explain when you feel lonely”
― Irena Klepfisz, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue: Poems Selected and New

“I numb myself and begin the body check
skimming quickly unwilling to be caught
in strangers' tragedies, only looking directly
at those whom I would have known
had circumstances been different.

The search leaves me weak.
I am still not hardened.
Often caught by a particular sight
I begin to read, despite myself,
and learn a new name, another event,
still another atrocity. I smell again
the burning bodies, see the flames,
wade through sewers in a last desperate effort,
till some present distraction,
like hunger or cold, draws
me back and I begin closing windows
and preparing dinner.”
― Irena Klepfisz, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue: Poems Selected and New