As I am Catholic
I have never played.
* * *
I've had
thirty-six lovers
plus tax.
* * *
I am the most chaste woman
in Italian literature.
* * *
I am completely
asexual
not counting errors
and omissions.
* * *
Mount Sinai
is sometimes confused
with the Mons Veneris.
* * *
No one can know
what is
between me and God.
Source: Poetry (December 2007).
MORE FROM THIS ISSUE
This poem originally appeared in the December 2007 issue of Poetry magazine
Renowned and beloved in her native Italy, poet Alda Merini’s numerous books include The Presence of Orpheus, Fear of God, Roman Wedding, Diary of an Other, and Love Lessons (2009),a selection of poems translated into English by Susan Stewart. Institutionalized for mental illness for nearly two decades, Merini’s later poems meditate on illness, nature, and myth. Merini was twice nominated for a Nobel Prize during her lifetime, . . .
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