Hillbilly

I heard the word recently, an Israeli

friend said it, by which they meant
uneducated, dirty, probably missing a tooth
or two, but I don’t hear hillbilly
like that, I hear hillbilly like I hear my name
like I hear Grama playing the banjo
or Aunt Patsy yodeling. I didn’t know
the word was bad
till I was six, when some girl a head taller
with long red braids to her waist called me
hillbilly. That was also when I learned the word
bastard. And that I was both. From a girl
I thought was gigantic.

Tara Zafft is a poet whose work explores themes of motherhood, belonging, war, and personal and collective trauma. Her work has appeared in anthology, Rumors Secrets and Lies, Poems about Abortion, Pregnancy and Choice, Write-Haus, Aether Avenue Press, The San Diego Poetry Annual, Vita and the Woolf Literary Journal, and Dumbo Press. In 2024, she was awarded the Moonlit Getaway Poetry Prize. Tara holds a BA in Russian Literature from UC San Diego and a Ph.D. in Modern Languages from the University of Bath, UK.