D. Dina Friedman
Winter 2023 | Poetry
Ode to Scales
Hills for little fingers. Cliffs for the transposing ear,
a harder but higher perch for thumbs to tuck
as fingers ripple. Such a strange word—scale
mottled back of a crocodile; removal of plaque
in the gum pockets by a goggled woman
gloved against germs; the machine we step on
to assess the damage of last night’s ice cream
with Oreo crumble; scales to weigh one thing
against another: Major. Harmonic. Phrygian.
Pentatonic. Who defines space between sound?
Who draws the lines? Who makes the rules?
A crocodile only obeys the rule of survival: eat
what doesn’t eat you first. My feet swing
above the toothy floor, piano stool spun
to its highest height. My tottering
teacher looks like a crocodile. Play F Major
she would have growled louder
if she could have, her vocal cords thinned
by bombings in World War II. My tiny fingers
forget the flat, that signpost black protruding
in a field of whiteness, its sonic signal tracked
by the crocodile’s glassy eye, sucked
into its crunching, indiscriminate teeth.
D. Dina Friedman has published in many literary journals and received two Pushcart Prize nominations. Her most recent book, Immigrants, a short story collection, is now available from Creators Press. She is also the author of two YA novels: Escaping Into the Night (Simon and Schuster) and Playing Dad’s Song (Farrar Straus Giroux) and one book of poetry, Wolf in the Suitcase (Finishing Line Press). A second poetry chapbook, Here in Sanctuary, Whirling is forthcoming from Querencia Press this spring. To learn more about Dina, visit her website at www.ddinafriedman.com. and subscribe to her blog on living a creative life in a creatively challenged universe at ddinafriedman.substack.com.