by Cheryl Savageau (Boston, MA)
….for Joseph
no bombs explode in our midst as we speak
but the tv tells stories of children in Paris
and Jerusalem who last night
dipped eggs in salt water
ate bitter herbs
they are dead now
How is this night
different from all others?
tonight we drink the four glasses of wine
schmear horseradish
and charoset on the
bread of haste
we open the door to
Elijah and sip
from Miriam’s cup
we eat Bubbie’s
matzoh balls
put an orange on the plate
there is nothing we eat
tonight that is not
a story
after the september bombing
my son and his wife
talked of the family they wanted
how dare we bring
a child into this
world? but when
has it not been
this way? how are
we any different?
and in love
and defiance they
conceived
tonight their unborn
child is the
stranger we welcome
among us
we will call him
Joseph he will be
loved he will ask
the questions open
the door drink
from the bottomless cup
Cheryl Savageau is a convert and also Native (Abenaki), and this poem is about her first experience as part of a Jewish family, and how she became part of the Jewish people. She has three collections of poetry: Mother/Land, (SALT 2006) Dirt Road Home (Curbstone Press 1995), and Home Country (Alice James, 1992). Her memoir, Out of the Crazywoods, was published in 2020, and her children’s book, Muskrat Will Be Swimming, was first published by Northland in 1996, then in paperback in 2006. This poem is part of a new collection, New Love/Old Love, looking for a publisher. Visit her website to learn more about her life and work: https://cherylsavageaublog.wordpress.com/
Note: Previously published in the Cape Cod Poetry Review, Vol IV and V Summer 2018, and reprinted here with the generous permission of the author.
The Jewish Writing Project 