Nesha Ruther

And The Sages Said Let Him Die

By Nesha Ruther May 15, 2019

the day i bit my fingers a biblical red i found an excerpt from the Talmud; a man becomes deathly ill with love for a woman i can count the number of men my body trusts on one hand the doctors say; he will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him…

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(Where) My Body Did Not End

By Nesha Ruther March 12, 2019

(Where) My Body Did Not End after Loose Strife by Quan Berry Draw a map with no beginning you were not born but plucked from tree vast and placeless mark the spot in your mother’s garden ( ) you broke water, took root Draw a timeline with the texture of your hair knot the habits…

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In Which the Wall Spits Back My Prayers

By Nesha Ruther January 31, 2019

  In my hollowest moments I wish my mother named me after a breathing thing a name with a voice to choke it over I pray for RachelRebeccaLeah, nice Jewish girl names that never die bonded to a land we bulldozed to make our own, but a man calls me the new Josephus curses me…

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A Day in Ramallah

By Nesha Ruther September 27, 2018

H. meets me in the Menarah at around 4:30; I am late, and she, in the tradition of everyone I have met here, is beyond gracious. We walk down Rukab Street towards Rukab Ice Cream. It’s the oldest ice cream shop in Ramallah and so notoriously good that the street is named after the shop…

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