Zeek | Happy Jew Year

Image: Zachary Handler

Happy Jew Year
Haya Pomrenze

I walk to synagogue
Swaying in my heels
Ill suited for ankles thick
As my grandmother's potato kugel.

Tropical sweat fills my cleavage
A makeshift birdbath
Housing my resentments.

I sit in synagogue
Listening for God on Yom Kippur
Is he more forgiving than the Lycra
In my fishnet pantyhose

Supporting me among women?
Paled by fasting and fear
I think of the break-fast as

I stand within the fervor
Clapping my breast among the cholent of Jews
Mainstream, upstream, wannabe converts in row W
Prayer books upside down.

Scratching soles among the pavement cracks
I walk home shoeless. A red-headed youth pops his head
From a slowed blue Chevy.

Happy Jew Year, he yells.