When my sister leaves, she leaves me with a toad. She makes good on a childhood threat. When we were little, she, a round-cheeked angel, and I, older and mean, used to say that when…
Posts tagged Portland Review
The Interrogative
In a dream, Moses confessesto me that “Everything God saysis a lie,” to which God respondsthrough a porthole of lightin the clouds, “What he says is true.”The paradox thrashes like a flightlessbird in my mouth.All…
The Whole Mishpocha
The kippah clipped to my hairnags like a tag. I don’t come to daven or lean into the ligature of lamedlike a shepherd’s crook,or wrap myself in the birthday-cake blue and white of communal tallit. I don’t…
My Mother in Menopause
Her skin seeps like soup.It’s not a perfect Revlon match,Oils jumping toward the waiterFor a glass of water and the entréeHasn’t even arrived to save her.Do you remember your mum’sFirst sweat at fifty, like a…