Dieter with the Tulips, Munich, 1984 (Nan Goldin)

Of all the portraits, this. Spare

morning, Garden of Eden. Apples,

tulips, butter-knife and the body

terrified of separation,

from God—no, of separation.

I refuse to write another love poem.

Dieter appears later on a train,

to Sweden; Dieter is maybe somewhere,

still, flush with fruit, early light.

I can’t stop thinking about the same things:

I am on a train, always, and you are there,

always, a metaphor. What else?

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Alisha Dietzman is the author of Sweet Movie (Beacon Press, 2023), selected by Victoria Chang for the National Poetry Series. A finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Oregon Book Awards, Sweet Movie was also shortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize. Her creative and critical work has received support from the Rebecca Swift Foundation, the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the US-UK Fulbright Commission.