Charlotte M. Friedman

Unpacking Charlotte

Click click, I spring the latches, open
the box filled with spirits—
Bronte, Rampling, Perkins Gilman,
Gainsbourgh and all of those of’s—

Monaco, Savoy, Luxembourg
& Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz, a mouthful
but prolific in her own way, (the queen
birthed fifteen). Her mark left

on -town and -ville, even an archipelago
later renamed. But my favorite namesake
is much smaller, not a ruse but a Russe,
boozy and molded from lady fingers

& custard, a fancy French concoction.
Perhaps fed up with patricians
and patisseries, that Charlotte fled
the Continent and took to the streets

of another city, reinvented herself
as a handheld treat. A little cake,
lotta whipped cream, crowned
with a cherry. New Yorkers loved her.

Charlotte M. Friedman is a poet, teacher and translator who grew up in Seattle and now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Her poetry has been published in journals such as Connecticut River Review, Intima, Waterwheel Review, The Maine Review, Nightingale & Sparrow, Lilith and in the anthology, A 21st Century Plague: Poetry from a Pandemic. Her translations of Ch’ol poetry (with Carol Rose Little) have been published in Latin American Literature Today, World Literature Today, Exchanges, North Dakota Quarterly and The Arkansas International.    

Her first book, The Girl Pages, was published by Hyperion.