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Tritina for Susannah

By David Yezzi David Yezzi

The water off these rocks is green and cold.

The sandless coast takes the tide in its mouth,

as a wolf brings down a deer or lifts its child.

I walked this bay before you were my child.

Your fingers stinging brightly in the cold,

I take each one and warm it in my mouth.

Though I’ve known this shore for years, my mouth

holds no charms of use to you, my child.

You will have to learn the words to ward off cold

and know them cold, child, in your open mouth.

Source: Poetry (May 2005).

Biography

David Yezzi’s poetry collections include Azores (2008) and The Hidden Model (2003), and his criticism and poetry have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Best American Poetry. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Yezzi is Executive Editor of The New Criterion. He has also edited The Swallow Anthology of New American Poetry (2009). His libretto for a chamber opera by composer David . . .

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