In response to Alan S. B.

the sun
lights upon
the sediment
collecting in our hearts

I did not realize
that green things
could still grow there

MLK Day

She cuts her toenails stands up strikes a dramatic pose
Ready to visit some old people

Guest post

My friend writes
the shortest
poems
of anyone
I know.
They go as long as
this
and then
they
stop.

--Joel Knopf (www.meltsinyourmind.com)

Someday

When we sing and rock in our chairs your voice sounds louder then softer then louder again like the closeness of the ground with each whoosh downwards of the swing in the park where I contemplated the relative heights of trees and houses and thought I could live there for sure I could live in that house someday

There was that time you sat down next to me during services and I borrowed a siddur from you and then when I gave it back at the end I kissed it and then you kissed it before putting it away and I thought to myself that's the only kiss we'll ever know and I wrote down that line because it sounded like a good ending to a story

I want to whirl in my dresses in front of you pull them out of the closet toss them on my bed and put them on one by one so there would finally be someone to share in my childish vanity at which point it wouldn't really be vanity any more it would be something about glory and joy in a ridiculous way and maybe you'd even get up from where you'd be sitting in a chair and hug me

And then after hugging we could sit opposite each other on the floor or maybe on the couch if our backs were tired and look at each other for a while and I could tell you about the divinity school eye contact course description I had just read that said that no matter which culture you're talking about people only really look at each other for more than ten seconds at a time if they're about to fight or if they're lovers and then you'd hit me over the head with a pillow as a joke

It's best if you interpret all of my rambling about graduate school applications and the soda bottles lined up on my counter tonight that I took home from yeshiva because no one else took them although I don't even drink diet soda as serving the phatic function which means that those sentences can be described as fulfilling the requirement of "meein chatima samuch lchatima" which means that anything directly preceding With Love, Molly is just another way of saying the same thing

Oh

I notice a space inside my ribcage
I wasn't aware of it a minute ago
something is sinking there
or maybe withdrawing
that's a better word
I notice
that I've kinda lost the will
to do stuff
And I think, oh
this is the feeling
you were thinking of
when you said you didn't want
to hurt me

Collage

Where the sea
becomes the night sky
and the sky the sea

and pairs of boots
turn into the stars

and cologne the comets

A Kholem: A Concert in Celebration of Adrienne Cooper / Erev Aseret b'Tevet

Oh God, don't you see Daniel Kahn
touch his knuckle to the tears in his eye
and don't you see me shuckle in time
in my seat near the back pleading
sholem please sholem oh please
oh dear God please sholem

Underneath

Her eyes track my finger as I reach out
and trace a line down the front
of her buttoned shirt

If she's anything like the paper
they gave us in art class
I'll find a rainbow

Movement

I thought I saw your fingers
but it was just the edges
of my scarf

Struggle

I sit up in bed and
look at my bookshelf and
feel that it needs just
a little adjustment and
think of a stanza re:
how I'm resisting but
then I walk over and
scootch it away from me
and to be honest,
I feel better now