Maybe It’s Only the Monotony

of these long scorching days but today my daughter is truly exasperating— Stop it! I shout—or I’ll— and I twist her little pinked arm slowly, calibrating my ferocity— You can’t hurt me you can’t hurt me! She’s so defiant, glowering, glaring at me— but frightened, her eyes bright with tears— See, I’m not even crying! I see. But it’s the angel of extermination I see, shining in his black trappings, and turning ecstatically toward him, a little Jewish girl tempts him to play his game of massacre. —after Vittorio Sereni