The poems in this post are part of a special section, curated by Ori Z Soltes and Robert Bettmann, The Jewish Experience.
My Facebook Feed, October 2023
by Jacqueline Jules
I post pictures of sunsets,
fall colors reflected in a pond,
boats bobbing on blue water.
Images I visualize
to keep my blood pressure
in the normal range
amidst abnormal times.
I go out daily
to find and photograph
flowers still strong despite
dwindling October light.
My grief glistens in the grass
as I press share
on yet another picture,
posting my hope
beauty will someday prevail
in a world abruptly turned vile.
The Talmud Says the World Resembles a Glass Jar
by Jacqueline Jules
Extremes cannot endure
inside a fragile vessel.
Think of glass
busted by boiling water
or fractured by freezing.
Too much heat or too little
produces the same result
in a world where Justice
and Compassion compete as if
we need only one to survive.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
makes everyone blind and toothless
Tevye declares on stage
while the fiddler plays a plaintive melody,
precariously perched on the roof.
Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman’s Broken String, winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press, and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 publications. Visit her online at www.jacquelinejules.com
Featured image in this post: Wall painting – still lifes with food – Pompeii (II 4 2-12) – Napoli MAN 8611, unknown author, ArchaiOptix, creative commons via wikimedia commons.
