Sharon Dolin
Two Questions
after Marianne Moore
My mother would ask, “Is he tall? Is he
a good kisser?” whenever a new man entered
my life. I always wondered, Did she mean just
kissing or was she asking if he was a good lover?
Despite having had several boyfriends before
she married—even one who proposed after
her first breakdown—she only ever had sex
with my father. Since by then he had left her,
perhaps she was living through me.
Now that she’s been gone for over thirty years,
and I am older than she ever was, I feel her
questions hovering as though she could live on
through me as I write the poems she never got
to write and kiss the men she never got to kiss.
Sharon Dolin is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Imperfect Present; a memoir entitled Hitchcock Blonde; and two books of translation, most recently Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems by Gemma Gorga, winner of Saturnalia Books Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize and finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Dolin is Associate Editor of Barrow Street Press and teaches poetry workshops in New York City. https://sharondolin.com.