Sunday, December 03, 2023

TACKY TINSEL STUFF

by Julie Standig


Vintage Judaica solid brass Weinberg dove bird Hanukkah menorah candlestick.



hooked to curtains

mylar dreidels, menorahs

glitzy glitter star of David 

dangles from the fireplace

 

the breakfast bar 

covered in hanukkiah,

driedels and drip trays

crafted by my children

thirty years ago

 

they’re asking for a truce

just two more days, two more

three hostages have died

one is a ten-month-old

 

dreidels fill plates

in our living room

dining room and den

I can’t spin them

 

the nine-month-old hostage

has yet to be released

is that the same baby that died?

how do you spin that?

 

newlyweds return to the rubble

of their Gaza home

a box of wedding candy 

the sole survivor of their stuff

 

One of my menorahs

takes the shape of a dove

I don’t know 

I don’t know

 

I cannot recall

the candle blessing

but those images of Israel

of Gaza burn bright



Julie Standig, a lifetime New Yorker, now lives in Bucks County PA. She has been published in anthologies, online journals, and is the author of a chapbook, and full collection, The Forsaken Little Black Book. A long-time participate at the 92Y, she loves the writing community she has found in Bucks County.