At the age of two, he told Santa,
That all he wanted for Christmas was a Christmas tree.
The stories he had heard,
painted this picture of the ideal holiday season.
With images of a family joined together around a Christmas tree.
But this painting was not his reality.
He was divided between two halves, between his right and left hemispheres.
One belonged to his mother, the other his father.
Both glued together by their love for him and each other.
But separated.
Stemming from their hearts and pumping different blood throughout their bodies
His two-year-old wish of a unified family surrounding a Christmas tree,
Sparked fireworks, lit matches, started a war.
Two sides, one boy
Between yarmulkes and Christmas trees,
Menorahs and Santa,
Mother and Grandmother
One woman who could not believe
Believed in a mystical man who stuffs himself inside a chimney
To fill large socks with personalized presents that defined his worth
One woman who could not believe
That her son
Was wearing yarmulkes upon his sheltered head.
Who was speaking a foreign language
That she herself could not understand
Two women
Fighting for this little boy
Who found himself in a world where he did not belong
Sitting together
Under a Christmas tree
1. I like the imagery of yarmulke
ReplyDelete2. my favorite line is "pumping different blood throughout their bodies"
I like how you wrote your poem and the repetition of "one woman". My favorite line is when you wrote, "Stemming from their hearts and pumping different blood throughout their bodies"
ReplyDeleteI think you do a really good job in this poem of showing the division between the mother and grandmother. The repetition of "One woman who could not believe" really nicely illustrates this idea. My favorite line would be "His two-year-old wish /of a unified family surrounding a Christmas tree,/Sparked fireworks, lit matches, started a war", because it conjures up great imagery, and really drives your point in.
ReplyDelete