Sephardi Legend
When Susona ben Susòn betrayed her father
did she beg for her head to be severed
from her body and nailed to the door
or did she hide in the cloisters of a convent
an orphaned Conversa enduring her days
in penitent contemplation
or did she become a flamenco dancer
twisting her hips, flicking her scarlet nails,
drilling her heels and stamping her sole,
gathering up the moons on her blood-red dress
pressed to her thighs, her long black curls
whipping the face of her partner
or a red-beaked parakeet
cloaked in sleek green feathers
flying between cypress tree and portico
screeching at her treacherous lover
for betraying her father to the Inquisition?
Michele Benn‘s poems draw on her Sephardi-Jewish heritage. Her writing has appeared in poetry anthologies and The Guardian. She lives in Leicester.
Note: Conversos- Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism in Spain particularly after the 14th Century pogroms.