Poems After Meret Oppenheim, by Sharon Dolin

Object
 
after Object, by Meret Oppenheim (Switzerland) 1936

What can you stir up inside me
             fur-covered
with my matching spoon? 
 
Some say I've gone pubic
             in public
to perturb you into seeing
 
your lips on my furred rim. 
             At tea time approach me
with your nakedness,
 
both of us freed, at last, 
             from domestic use
as again and over again
 
your eyes compel you
             to drink me in.

**

Shoe In
 
after Project for Sandals by Meret Oppenheim (Switzerland) 1936
 
I'm a shoe turning into a foot
turning into a shoe: furry
 
body with heel and strap, 
I'm not yet entirely viable
 
until worn. With human
toes, I may also be part
 
bear. Fish will not deflect
me being hunter and
 
haunter. Strap me on: 
see what you become.

**
​
X-Ray of My Skull 

after X-Ray of My Skull by Meret Oppenheim (Switzerland) 1964/1981
 
Wearing hoop earrings and rings 
 
am I still too naked for you? Forget 
 
my lips, forget my errant nose
 
and tongue. My thin skin. Love me 
 
to the bone: my slender neck bones, 
 
my jawbone, my long finger bones.
 
In this world gone grey-black
 
let my skull sing its own dreamscape
 
of broken eggshells brimming 
 
from manual typewriter rolls,
 
bell peppers plattered on rough seas 
 
beginning to lift off and darken 
 
my cranial sky.

**

​Stone Woman (1938)
 
after Stone Woman, by Meret Oppenheim (Switzerland) 1938

Here I lie—stranded 
between sand and sea—reclining
      as the sun bakes my
      stone head
              my stone shoulder
              belly and hips.
              My legs, submerged, 
              have not grown
              barnacles or fins.
                           My Mary Janes           and knee-highs                        
                           waterlogged. If you     should come upon       
                           me do not disturb.       I prefer this     littoral space 
                           since I'm          caught between 
                 two states      of being.
                 Where else    could I hide far           from war         
                            but in plain sight.

​Sharon Dolin

Sharon Dolin is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Imperfect Present (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022). A 2021 recipient of an NEA in Translation, her book of translations from Catalan, Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems by Gemma Gorga was awarded the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize from Saturnalia Books and was shortlisted for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize. Dolin is Associate Editor at Barrow Street Press and lives in New York City.