Denise Bergman
Summer 2025 | Poetry
HIlda
she is thinking at the border of no words. her eyes, dandelion puffs, drift to wherever she’s called. Hilda c’mere she likes to hear, drawn to being claimed, though my voice in her ear must be strange as a silent bee
her palm dry and calloused escorts mine
ding dong bell pussy in the well who put her in who pulled her out, we are singsong
she is thinking at the stone wall where words can’t cross. at the fence where words catch on chain-link diamonds, catch, and meaning streams down the ding dong well
her palm dry, calloused, scarred from rust and rubble stone, pulling mine
Denise Bergman is the author of five books of poetry. The Shape of the Keyhole takes place during one week in 1650 as a falsely accused woman awaits her hanging. Three Hands None delves into the night forty years ago when a woman was attacked in her bed by a stranger. A Woman in Pieces Crossed a Sea centers on the making and endurance of “symbol” in the Statue of Liberty. The Telling was generated by a refugee woman’s lifelong secret. Seeing Annie Sullivan is based on the early life of Helen Keller’s teacher.
Her poems have been widely published and the first stanza of her poem “Red,” about a neighborhood near a slaughter-house, is permanently installed in a public park in Cambridge, Mass.
Visit her website at denisebergman(dot)com.