Niddah Poem by gershon hepner

Trailing snail-tracks of the jism
appearing through the private prism
of her lover’s contact, lenses
unobstructed by her menses,
the couple, having made the beast
with two backs, as nay-sayers might
describe them, do not care the least
if Moses got the law quite right.

Niddah is Hebrew for menstruating woman. The poem was inspired by the first line of a poem by Karl Kirchwey in TNR, November 5,2008. The poem begins:

Snail-track of jism? No, that was the moon
Silvering the tongue-and-groove of floor,
My parents arguing outside on the stair,
The primal “We should get a divorce” scene



© 2008 Gershon Hepner 10/23/08