love letter to antisemites
because I feel most like myself when I start stroking my nose / & projecting my insecurities
onto some tiny piece of land / I swear I could murmur my surname over & over / just
to squeeze its jew out / like when you tell me I’m different / & confess your raging desire
to fuck me / I can’t help but think of my breasts on yom kippur / how thoroughly
I slap them / how familiar I am with fasting / & the high of breaking / which really
is brokenness / I am brilliant at shame / bless me / when you take the time
to honk at my ankles / whilst I’m walking to synagogue / only I would send wishes
for a sweet new year / thank you / & thank you again for returning me
to my knees / which are the least defined parts of myself / & thus the softest /
it must be your rare cadence / arousing remembrance of my tendency / to burst in
on rabbis / blowing shofars / how this always recalls the location of my heart /
how / & after all this time / I don’t know where to sit
This poem was longlisted by the Young Poets Network and originally published in the first edition of Yente, a queer and Jewish zine created by a student collective at Oxford. You can read the full first issue of Yente digitally or submit to their latest edition here.
