by Cheryl Savageau (Boston, MA)
…for Aunt Molly
she said I was
a shiksa but
she didn’t
hold it
against me
once she knew
I played poker
You have a cat?
I wouldn’t
eat in your kitchen
who asked you?
I said and threw
a quarter into the kitty
she ordered the
old beaver jacket
off my back
took apart the dry skins
and brought them
back to life
stitched a new
lining complete
with monogram
I listened to her
stories of strikes
in the garment district
as she dealt another hand
we’re not supposed to play
poker on Passover
but we’re waiting for dessert
and cards are flying
like the stories she tells
of sisters who fled
the pogroms
walked to the Black Sea
and took a boat to America
I am the shiksa
who learned to love
her red horseradish
and the crystal dish
that held it, the one
on my Pesach table
the crystal dish
filled now
with red beets
and bitter root
Cheryl Savageau is a convert and also Native (Abenaki), and her poems are 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/
The Jewish Writing Project 