The Revisionist
My blond, blue-eyed
grandma now insists
she has Jewish blood.
German parents, war,
and what came before,
palmed, in their place,
absolution. Of course,
only after her husband—
Irish, drunk as expected—
coughed to death, did
she dare trot it out. Her
best trick, she'd itched
to put it to use, for clean
sheets to perfume the air.
link to video
Luiza Flynn-Goodlett is the author of the forthcoming collection Look Alive—a finalist for numerous prizes, including The National Poetry Series, and winner of the 2019 Cowles Poetry Book Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press—along with six chapbooks, most recently Tender Age, winner of the 2019 Headmistress Press Charlotte Mew chapbook contest, and Shadow Box, winner of the 2019 Madhouse Press Editor's Prize. Her poetry can be found in Third Coast, Pleiades, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She serves as editor-in-chief of Foglifter, writes reviews for The Adroit Journal, and lives in sunny Oakland, California.
