Civics Unit: Naturalization Test
By Mariya Zilberman
Editor’s Note: “Civics Unit: Naturalization Test” by Mariya Zilberman, was chosen by Ruth Madievsky as the poetry winner of Columbia Journal‘s 2019 Winter Contest. It was published in Columbia Journal #58 and appears here with permission from the author.
Civics Unit: Naturalization Test
1. What is the supreme law of the land?
Every summer, the fires come. Sometimes, they arrive early,
stay past the fall. The fires tear through houses and bird nests.
Schools close and hospitals. Old groves shed their flame-licked
acorns. The water runs out.
2. What does the Constitution do?
The air fills with miles of particulate. People dream
of dogs licking their feet. Fuschia sky, previously
unfathomable, hovers at dawn. Once bright sun
so hazy you can now look at it.
3. The idea of self-government is in the first three
words of the Constitution. What are these words?
News reports say to leave respirators
for the elderly, asthmatics, vulnerable
persons. Trees topple. Work goes on.
4. What is an amendment?
Some blame the rain.
Some: themselves.
Some: others.
5. What is freedom of religion?
Baltimore. Age eight. I walk to my friend’s house
with a bucket of chalk. The apartment is wide open.
Everything is gone. I write his name on the sidewalk.
6. What is the economic system in the United States?
Cape Cod. Age eleven. We take a vacation. All of the families
on this bus speak Russian. One kid, new, speaks only Russian.
The boys line up, then they punch him.
7. What is the rule of law?
The hills are rolling embers, flares that ebb
with the wind gusts. Tankers drop fire
retardant, make more trees fall. Eyes burn
outside the control line. Shelters open.
Not enough food arrives.
About the author:
Mariya Zilberman is a writer and educator originally from Minsk, Belarus. She earned an MFA at the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers' Program and has received fellowships and awards from the Vermont Studio Center, the Yiddish Book Center, and the Hopwood Program. She previously worked in non-profit communications and as a business and legal affairs reporter.
