Ani Lo Yoda’at

A little Poland of Yiddish candlesticks,
bread and honey, apple slice and
omen, Lipton in a clear glass
mug, indisputable as cotton
slippers scratching out
half-erased ceremonies from
a floor that grunts like America
(a Mediterranean drained
of accordion
and starlight)

Caravans of matzoh and salt haul
pads of butter in a rain of fingertip and piano.

I never learned the language
of these things
the language of all
that’s left

________

S. Preston Duncan is a death doula, BBQist, and spiritual mutt (read: half Ashkenazi/half Americana music) in rural orbit around Richmond, Virginia. He is author of the short book and EP, The Sound in This Time of Being (BIG WRK, 2020). His work has been commissioned by The Peace Studio for their 100 Offerings of Peace project, recently appeared in The New Southern Fugitives, Atlas + Alice, Levee Magazine, Circle Show, and been translated into Chinese by Poetry Lab Shanghai.