Michelle Szobody

rOSEMARY

OPHELIA:
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance;
Pray you, love, remember.

When I woke no one spoke to me
people staring fish-eyed bony-lipped
his chair vacant at our breakfast table
I plod up alone to church

people staring fish-eyed bony-lipped
candle-sputter with the opening door
I plod up alone to church
Father is already there

candle-sputter with the opening door
bare-faced on the bier
Father is already there
that blood-crumb in the corner of his marble mouth

bare-faced on the bier
shimmer of parishioners nibbling on litanies
that blood-crumb in the corner of his marble mouth
fish eyes gaping everywhere

shimmer of parishioners nibbling on litanies
Priest’s voice surges something about burial
fish eyes gaping everywhere
cannot make the funeral unblur

Priest’s voice surges something about burial
lit wicks rippling round the bier
cannot make the funeral unblur
shoals of requiems fill my ears

lit wicks rippling round the bier
burning air drowning with rosemary
shoals of requiems fill my ears
when I woke no one spoke to me

burning air drowning with rosemary

Michelle Szobody is a British-American poet and translator with an interest in marginalisation in literature and in how the canon can be renegotiated to promote inclusivity and ecology. Her work has appeared on both sides of the Atlantic, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in the UK, and won an IPPY award in the US. She is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Bristol.

Michelle wrote this about her poem:

‘Rosemary' is from a longer sequence exploring how Ophelia’s relationships with both nature and patriarchy affect her sense of self. I was thinking about how Ophelia lacks genuine friendship, how her father and brother both insist that her value to Hamlet can’t go deeper than lust, and how in the social order she navigates, it’s safer for her to believe them than to risk a romantic relationship. When Hamlet kills her father, her tenuous world fragments. For me, the pantoum form enacts the shock of abandonment, betrayal, and grief that eventually claims her life.