Ethnic Jew - 01/06/16

originally posted @sunday on newhive as "l'chaim"

Gentile girl in profile (goyische button nose),

hand pressed to mine under covers,

we hop between languages, waiting for sleep,

from her German to my French

to her Dutch to my Spanish

to the tail of my Yiddish that escapes my grabbing hands,

buried generations ago in flight from

Germany.

Poland.

Unsafe tongue still -

a kosher market weeping, bleeding,

bleeding out.

January chills and preserves what remains.

Exodus.