Uphold Me

BY KAREN GERSHON

And still my feelings sprout richest
in the furrow ploughed by my father:
caress me as a daughter
to gather a total harvest.
I accept you with every blemish
as I did the man in my childhood
as a measure of my own value;
be David to make me Bathsheba,
elaborate me with legends,
uphold me in the image
I formed of myself when I was
indomitable like grass
and passion lay fallow.