What is Needed After Food
And so beautiful it cracks the bones, especially Jerusalem
With the lustre of her stones, the hurt in her eyes
And our dreams for her children: a triangle
Beauty, despair, hope...the whole mispocah
Pulling three ways at the same time
Like the people in so many families,
Fighting but joined at the hip, or call it a sandwich,
Despair the filling embraced by the bread of beauty and hope,
Like manna we at every day, sent from above,
While on earth in Jerusalem my friend's husband and son
Relax from a sabbath meal, like well-fed beasts,
Happily slumped watching the aftermath
Of a game where the Nazareth team has just won
And vaulted from the bottom of their league
To the top, the players have stripped off their shirts,
Hugging and dancing, circle dancing, belly dancing,
Waving at crowds in the stands to make them cheer louder,
The coach strips his shirt from his hairy barrel chest,
Climbs a wire fence, wobbles and waves his hips.
When someone asks how he feels about his team
(A mix of Jews, Moslems, and one Nigerian,
He himself is Druze), he punches the air
And roars, I beat them all! I beat Arafat! And Sharon!
I show them we love each other! We watch a while,
The celebration is still going on when we quit
To go back to the kitchen, where loaves of beauty and hope
Stand on the counter and the cup of despair goes on the shelf,
My friend and I, we don't ask for much, we read Amichai,
We're not messianic, we don't expect utopia, which is anyway
Another name for a smiling prison,
But love is a good idea, why on earth not,
Simple women that we are, simple mothers cleaning up
The kitchen to make one meal ready for the next.
-- Alicia Suskin Ostriker
When I started this blog, I said I'd post a poem on any day I couldn't write. I'd fallen away from it, which I now think is an error. Alicia Suskin Ostriker's name may be familiar to you for her activism on peace and justice issues, but I've admired and taught her poetry for years now, and was delighted to be able to review her new book for Pleiades. I'll post my thoughts, as I draft the review, in a bit - but for now, let this one be my offering to the morning, amid all our strife and horror.
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