June — Blackbird Archive

← v19n1, Spring 2020

By most accounts, Goya, 74, painted the black paintings for himself. Some scholars claim they are frauds painted by his son, Javier. All that matters: their testimony of our brutality as we inhabit lives we never thought possible. Milgram proved how easy it is to obey, to push the buzzer.

Judith beheading Holofernes does not frighten me. I watched Saturn devour my child for nine years and now I watch as children suffer behind bars. When I close my eyes, all I see is Goya’s drowning dog. He’s stuck like Winnie in Happy Days but without speech. All that gold light above the quicksand—as if nothing can save us.

family illness home

Jennifer Franklin

Jennifer Franklin is the author of two poetry collections: No Small Gift (Forthcoming from Four Way Books, 2018) and Looming (Elixir Press, 2015), which won the 14th Annual Elixir Press Editor’s Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Boston Review , The Nation , The Paris Review , and elsewhere. A selection of her poetry is featured in Andrew Solomon’s award winning book, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity (Scribner, 2013). She received her MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts where she was a Harvey Baker Fellow. Franklin teaches poetry workshops and seminars at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center where she serves as the program director, and she is a coeditor of Slapering Hol Press, the small press imprint of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center. She lives in New York City. Photo by Arnaldo Reyes