The poems in this post are part of a special section, curated by Ori Z Soltes and Robert Bettmann, The Jewish Experience.
THE GIFT
You showed me the map —
over a metre in length,
laminated, a small tear
in the lower left corner.
Beautiful image, taken
by satellite. It can’t be
recycled, you pointed out.
I shrugged. I knew I had
no place in my house to
hang it, but what
could I say? A gift
is a gift. Don’t —
you said when I started
to roll it up. I think you
worried it might damage
the map, that once rolled
it might never again
be made straight. You told
me: I had it hanging in
my office but it became
too distracting. I could see
why — those vivid colours,
the places that image
represented. I mean, there
it stood, the entire Land,
north to south — desert
and garden, snow-cap, rift
valley, slowly dying sea. No
border drawn across the surface,
only a few cities marked in
red. As if it were all one
country, as if nothing
might tear it part.
PESACH 5784
• In Hebrew, the word seder means “order”. In modern Hebrew, the colloquial idiom B’seder (literally, in order); translates as “okay”.
This is the seder of the new age.
This seder is out of order.
Next year we do not know
where we will be —
if we will be.
The door is not simply open,
it is off its hinges. All
who have eaten will go
hungry.
Miriam’s Cup is filled
with bitter herbs. Elijah’s Cup
gathers dust.
This night is different from all others
but we will not recline,
we will not dip twice, we will not
dip at all.
The matzoh is scorched.
Every plate bears drops of blood.
Instead of one empty chair
all the chairs are empty.
Nothing is okay.
Lo b’seder לא בסדר
Lo b’seder לא בסדר
Lo b’seder לא בסדר
I am a native of Montgomery County, Maryland. My poetry has been published in numerous journals, including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Evening Street, Steam Ticket, Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, and Main Street Rag. My work has also appeared in several anthologies, including “Secrets & Dreams”, Kind of a Hurricane Press; “My Cruel Invention”, Meerkat Press; “Greening the Earth”, Penguin Books; and “Written in Arlington”, Paycock Press.
I am the author of five poetry chapbooks: “Not Quite: Poems Written in Search of My Father”, (Finishing Line Press, 2015), and “Our Situation”, (Prolific Press, 2018), “Everyone Disappears” (Finishing Line Press, 2020), “Little Wars” (Kelsay Books, 2021), and “Watchman, What of the Night?” (CW Books, 2022). A full-length collection, “Flying to America” was released in the spring of 2024 by Broadstone Press.
Featured image in this post: Sattelite image of snow in the Middle East, 15.12.2013, NASA, creative commons via wikimedia commons.