Poetry
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LIKE GRANDMOTHER
I discovered engagement
In my grandmother's kitchen
Her body supporting my four year-old frame
Helping me shape bagels
And knead bread
For the whole family to eat.
I discovered engagement
On my grandmother's sofa
Her deft hands helping mine
Ply a crochet hook
Weaving garments for my dolls.
I discovered engagement
By my grandmother's side
Teaching her to spell
While she helped me
Become a woman.
My engagement
brought
Independence and community
Wonder and responsibility.
But where's that engagement in school?
"First ya gotta control 'em,"
That's what I hear.
"They won't do anything unless ya make 'em."
So it's no lockers between class,
No trips to the bathroom.
It's late slips and detentions
And in-school suspension.
There's no working together, no adventure
Or excitement at learning something new.
"If it's aversive enough," I hear,
"They'll comply."
But compliance brings
Dependence and hostility
Resistance and rebellion.
I try
so hard to be like my grandmother
Offering invitations to wonder and explore
But the confining walls we inflict on kids
Serve only to alienate.
My grandmother knew something we have forgotten
We must welcome them warmly into our adult world.
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GENERATION GAP
Mourning the adult I did not know
I remember the Rob I adored
The child who read
I'm a north going Zax, I always go north
and wrote
The wind whisked my kite away
who explored the world
Aren't there any 'yes' parking signs, Jude?
with a command unusual in a child so young.
How come that exit sign is green?
That calendar says September,
but
it's October, ya know!
Dear Tooth Fairy...
This is Robbie Thompson reporting.
So many memories to treasure.
Now Rob is gone
And I mourn the adult second-hand
Through the stories of others.
I have no stories of my own
To fill the void.
I guess that's how it is
With aunts and nephews.
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TOAST TO THE BRIDE
This occasion
symbolizing continuity
marks a significant transition.
Today "space-age girl"
you become a wife.
Born on the day astronauts first walked on the moon
you have witnessed the future:
heart-transplants, genetic engineering,
global computer networks.
Yet today you connect with your family's past.
To your many personas
daughter, grand-daughter,
sister, niece, friend, and teacher
you have added wife.
The Maxelle we all love
competent and caring
giggly and fun-loving
budding feminist, environmentalist, and arts-lover
has taken on new responsibilities
the same ones her mother
grandmothers
great-grandmothers
assumed before her.
And all of us,
gathered here
to celebrate this passage
wish you and Michael
many blessings
great joy
and much happiness.
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MIRROR
Chaos confronted me
as I entered the hall:
kids running around
pulling stuff from one another's lockers.
I was standing there
hands on hips
when twelve year-old Sally
sidled up
leaned close
and said,
"Pretty rowdy, aren't they?"
"Yes," I concurred, "like wild Indians."
She leaned closer-
"I'm part Indian, you know," she confided.
A friendly overture
reflecting an image
I was shocked to see.
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GIDEON BIBLE
I remember when
the Gideon Society distributed
small, red, leather-bound
fine print editions of the New Testament
to every fourth grader in the city.
At age eight
I knew
there was something illicit
about that book
for me-
a jew.
I brought it home
from the christian world of school
carefully penned my name on the flyleaf
put it on the night table beside my bed.
My parents, nominal jews
thought nothing of it.
I owned the testament a week or more
before rumblings began.
Calls from the Rabbi and other parents;
hushed discussions
Then a decision:
The book must be returned.
I was outraged
but the Rabbi was adamant:
No christian corruption.
My mother aquiesced.
I remember the day
I walked down the aisle
in front of the gentiles
and returned
my copy of that Book
proclaiming my difference.
There was a cost-
relinquishing
that new testament
cut me off from
my jewishness
forever.
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