I AM YUDIT

I am Yudit, the granddaughter of Rebbe Yudah
who sailed on his longings in a boat from Istanbul
to die in the shack where I was born.
Between flimsy partitions,
floor tiles spread out on sand,
I rose and fell to the breath of the earth,
searched among the twisted roots
that turned water and light
into lemon alcohol, plum sugar.
In the cats’ keening I longed,
in the doves’ cooing I hungered for something,
in the rain’s drumming on the loose tiles
I knew the thirst of the swerving birds,
I arose to the triumph of the blackening, engulfing riverbed,
and I didn’t know whereto

I AM YUDIT