years of immersion have taught me: there is nothing more
jewish than to commemorate great suffering in a new era
of great suffering / eating globs of horseradish as ritual
so there’s a new and exciting reason / to break down in tears
why is this night different from all other nights? outside is
a place I haven’t gone in three days / a child keeps calling
happy birthday! happy birthday! and for a moment I can believe
I’m not worried sick about waking life / my uncle and dad
my partner and friends / our big plans / everything sucks
if I couldn’t have a woman president I would have enjoyed
a jewish one / a lifelong scholar of suffering just like the rest of us
well-versed in tradition / annual turned perennial / the sturdy table
where we gather to trot out the dead / tell their story and pray
next year we’ll be in jerusalem and/or together again
NICOLE STEINBERG is the author of Glass Actress (Furniture Press Books, 2017), Getting Lucky (Spooky Girlfriend Press, 2013), and several chapbooks, including Fat Dreams (Barrelhouse, 2018). Her work has been featured or reviewed in the New York Times, Newsweek, Flavorwire, Bitch, and Hyperallergic, and her poetry was selected by Penn State’s Pennsylvania Center for the Book for the 2016 Public Poetry Project poster series. She’s the founder of New York’s EARSHOT reading series and she lives in Philadelphia. She can be found at nicolesteinberg.net.
