Young Ravens Literary Review: A Biannual Online Literary Journal
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  • Interviews
    • Issue 1 Interviews >
      • Interview with artist Ira Joel Haber
      • Interview with writer S. L. Woodford
      • Interview with poet Dayna Patterson
    • Issue 2 Interviews >
      • Interview with poet Laura Lovic-Lindsay
      • Interview with photographer Michelle Hrvat
      • Interview with author Thalia Spinrad
      • Interview with artist Bobbie Berendson W.
    • Issue 3 Interviews >
      • Interview with author Terri Glass
      • Interview with poet Michael Keshigian
      • Interview with artist Zephren Turner
    • Issue 4 Interviews >
      • Interview with Poet Anne Whitehouse
      • Interview with Artist W. Jack Savage
      • Interview with Author Krisanne Knudsen
    • Issue 5 Interviews >
      • Interview with Poet Seth Jani
      • Interview with Artist Fabrice Poussin
      • Interview with Writer Judith Kelly Quaempts
    • Issue 6 Interviews >
      • Interview with Artist Christine Stoddard
      • Interview with Poet Ricky Ray
      • Interview with Poet Christina Lovin
    • Issue 7 Interviews >
      • Interview with Artist Max Talley
      • Interview with Poet Ali Hintz
      • Interview with Author Lauren Morrow
    • Issue 8 Interviews >
      • Interview with Artist Jesse White
      • Interview with Poet Jeff Burt
      • Interview with Author Daanish Jamal
    • Issue 9 Interviews >
      • Interview with Poet Antoni Ooto
      • Interview with Artist Juan Páez
      • Interview with Writer Meg Freer
    • Issue 10 Interviews >
      • Interview with Shannon Elizabeth Gardner
      • Interview with Karen Neuberg
      • Interview with Vikram Masson
    • Issue 11 Interviews >
      • Interview with Tay Greenleaf
      • Interview with Larry D. Thacker
      • Interview with Jennifer Battisti
    • Issue 12 Interviews >
      • Interview with Shankar Ramakrishnan
      • Interview with Bella Koschalk
      • Interview with Christina Hoag
    • Issue 13 Interviews >
      • Interview with Lauren Walke
      • Interview with Michael Brockley
      • Interview with Donna Pucciani
    • Issue 14 Interviews >
      • Interview with Jemma Leigh Roe
      • Interview wtih Michael T. Young
      • Interview with Judith Ford
    • Issue 15 Interviews >
      • Interview with Richard Levine
      • Interview with Laura Erekson
      • Interview with Leslie Dianne
    • Issue 16 Interviews >
      • Interview with Richard Hanus
      • Interview with Damon Hubbs
      • Interview with Wendy K. Mages
    • Issue 17 Interviews >
      • Interview with Matina Vossou
      • Interview wtih Sigrun Susan Lane
      • Interview with Ariel Mitchell Williams
  • Issues
    • Issue 1 >
      • Introduction Issue 1
      • Cover Art "Girl with Bouquet"
      • Hearing
      • Tiger Nebula & Barnacles
      • 3 Poems by Dayna Patterson
      • A Fruitful Tale
      • 3 Photographs of Spain
      • Sea Ice & Touch the Sun
      • Toad Hunting
      • Touch of Rainbow
      • Moon over Venice & Fontana di Trevi
      • Longboat Key Beach
      • Seashells & Colored Grove
      • Driving Home from the Bar with Frankie, Winter
      • You are the Vision
      • The Embroidery (Vyshyvanka)
      • Safe, Sound
    • Issue 2 >
      • Cover art by Tommy Ottley
      • YR2 Introduction
      • YR2 Bobbie Berendson W.
      • YR2 Laura Madeline Wiseman
      • YR2 Robert A. Kaufman
      • YR2 Laura Lovic-Lindsay
      • YR2 Rebecca Page
      • YR2 Lanette Cadle
      • YR2 Michelle Hrvat
      • YR2 Heather Monson
      • YR2 Maria S. Picone
      • YR2 Mary Bast
      • YR2 Bridget Gage-Dixon
      • YR2 Liz & Elisa Pulido
      • YR2 Katherine Simmons
      • YR2 Thalia Spinrad
      • YR2 Wilda Morris
      • YR2 Ruth Foley
      • YR2 Brent Danley Jones
      • YR2 Sarah Sadie
    • Issue 3 >
      • Cover Art by Zephren Turner
      • YR3 Introduction
      • YR3 Michael Keshigian
      • YR3 Natalie Luehr
      • YR3 Fern G. Z. Carr
      • YR3 Elizabeth Perdomo
      • YR3 Anandi Wilkinson
      • YR3 Terri Glass
      • YR3 Brendan Walsh
      • YR3 Heidi Morrell
      • YR3 Marianne Szlyk
      • YR3 Rachel Bownik
      • YR3 Dennis Trujillo
      • YR3 Dani Dymond
      • YR3 Sylvia Ashby
      • YR3 W. Jack Savage
      • YR3 Krisanne Hastings Knudsen
      • YR3 Dayna Patterson
      • YR3 Mary Buchinger
      • YR3 Linda M. Crate
      • YR3 Nels Hanson
      • YR3 Stephen L. Peck
      • YR3 Debbie Barr
      • YR3 Joanne Esser
      • YR3 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR3 Emily Strauss
    • Issue 4 >
      • Cover art by Kurt Knudsen
      • Introduction: the heart of cyclicity
      • YR4 Page Turner
      • YR4 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR4 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR4 Bridget Gage-DIxon
      • YR4 Lisa Cook
      • YR4 Mary Stike
      • YR4 W. Jack Savage
      • YR4 Michael Pendragon
      • YR4 J. Ellington
      • YR4 Mantz Yorke
      • YR4 John Grey
      • YR4 Carl Boon
      • YR4 Lynn Otto
      • YR4 Ayendy Bonifacio
      • YR4 Yuan Changming
      • YR4 Paul Stansbury
      • YR4 Ingrid Bruck
      • YR4 Helen Patrice
      • YR4 Laura Sobbott Ross
      • YR4 Krisanne Hastings Knudsen
      • YR4 Emily Bilman
      • YR4 Kaye Linden
      • YR4 Edilson A. Ferreira
      • YR4 Jessica Lindsley
      • YR4 Michael Keshigian
    • Issue 5 >
      • YR5 Introduction
      • YR5 Kirchheimer & Piudik
      • YR5 Robert Ford
      • YR5 Mark A. Fisher
      • YR5 Eli T. Mond
      • YR5 Dani Dymond
      • YR5 Seth Jani
      • YR5 Tonya Hamill (Poetry)
      • YR5 Kersten Christianson
      • YR5 Ed Higgins
      • YR5 Thomas Piekarski
      • YR5 Don Thompson
      • YR5 Marc Carver
      • YR5 Carol Smallwood
      • YR5 Mackenzie Dwyer
      • YR5 Michael Keshigian
      • YR5 Banwynn (Suta) Oakshadow
      • YR5 Terri Simon
      • YR5 Richard Fein
      • YR5 Andrew Hubbard
      • YR5 Matthew Burns
      • YR5 Allison Gish
      • YR5 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR5 Anthony Rubino
      • YR5 Tonya Hamill (Art)
      • YR5 Jennie Harward
      • YR5 Chad M. Horn
      • YR5 Shandi Kano
      • YR5 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR5 Alec Solomita
      • YR5 Review
    • Issue 6 >
      • YR6 Introduction
      • YR6 Christine Stoddard
      • YR6 Ahrend Torrey
      • YR6 Jenn Powers
      • YR6 Felicia Mitchell
      • YR6 Brandon Marlon
      • YR6 Natalie Luehr
      • YR6 Sarah Rehfeldt
      • YR6 Terri Glass
      • YR6 Christina Lovin
      • YR6 Kelly DuMar
      • YR6 Joan White
      • YR6 Peggy Turnbull
      • YR6 Nate Maxson
      • YR6 Vivian Wagner
      • YR6 Tushar Jain
      • YR6 Gordon Kippola
      • YR6 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR6 Ashley Park Owens - Art
      • YR6 Marianne Peel
      • YR6 Lindsey S. Frantz
      • YR6 Mark Bonica
      • YR6 Ed Krizek
      • YR6 Ricky Ray
      • YR6 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR6 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR6 Cat Dixon
      • YR6 Barbara Brooks
      • YR6 William Doreski
      • YR6 John Grey
      • YR6 Michael Keshigian
      • YR6 Maureen Solomon
      • YR6 Kersten Christianson
      • YR6 Jennifer Liston
      • YR6 Shawna Sommerstad
      • YR6 Ashley Parker Owens - Poetry
      • YR6 Claire Blotter
      • YR6 Zev Torres
    • Issue 7 >
      • Introduction Issue 7
      • YR7 Max Talley
      • YR7 Thomas O'Connell
      • YR7 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR7 Archita Mittra
      • YR7 Ali Hintz
      • YR7 Lucía Damacela
      • YR7 Steven Sher
      • YR7 Cynthia Blank
      • YR7 Kathryn Knight Sonntag
      • YR7 Holly Day
      • YR7 Judy Shepps Battle
      • YR7 Allegra Forman
      • YR7 Kristen Wood
      • YR7 Sarah Rehfeldt
      • YR7 Don Thompson
      • YR7 Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
      • YR7 Dan Brook
      • YR7 Michael Maul
      • YR7 Dennis Trujillo
      • YR7 Lauren Morrow
      • YR7 Daginne Aignend
      • YR7 Ann Christine Tabaka
      • YR7 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR7 Michael Keshigian
      • YR7 Karen Poppy
      • YR7 Matthew Barron
      • YR7 Krikor Der Hohannesian
      • YR7 Linda M. Crate
      • YR7 Natalie Schriefer
      • YR7 Bob Carlton
      • YR7 Roger Sippl
      • YR7 Jake Sheff
      • YR7 Dan Brook - NF
      • YR7 Jim Zola
      • YR7 Kelsey May
      • YR7 Mark A. Fisher
      • YR7 Meg Freer
      • YR7 Chris Connolly
      • YR7 DJ Hill
      • YR7 Mantz Yorke
      • YR7 Mark J. Mitchell
    • Issue 8 >
      • Issue 8 Introduction
      • YR8 Jesse White
      • YR8 Barbara A. Meier
      • YR8 Meg Freer
      • YR8 Andrea Wolper
      • YR8 Emily Warzeniak - Art
      • YR8 Emily Warzeniak - Poetry
      • YR8 Parul Gupta
      • YR8 Robert Beveridge
      • YR8 Chris Stolle
      • YR8 Maria Pascualy
      • YR8 Daanish Jamal
      • YR8 Roberta Senechal de la Roche
      • YR8 Wendy Schmidt
      • YR8 Kevin Casey
      • YR8 Constantin Preda
      • YR8 Suzanne S. Rancourt
      • YR8 Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz
      • YR8 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR8 Jeff Burt
      • YR8 Michael Keshigian
      • YR8 Ray Ball
    • Issue 9 >
      • YR9 Introduction
      • YR9 Juan Paez
      • YR9 Antoni Ooto
      • YR9 Dennis Trujillo
      • YR9 Kersten Christianson
      • YR9 Stephen Register
      • YR9 Rasma Haidri
      • YR9 John Grey
      • YR9 Terri Glass
      • YR9 Meg Freer - Art
      • YR9 Keith Moul
      • YR9 Thomas Piekarski
      • YR9 Jared Pearce
      • YR9 Sunil Sharma
      • YR9 Paul Bluestein
      • YR9 Linda M. Crate
      • YR9 Meg Freer
      • YR9 Hugh Cook
      • YR9 Marc Carver
      • YR9 Mary Buchinger
      • YR9 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR9 Robert Wexelblatt
      • YR9 Don Thomposon
    • Issue 10 >
      • Issue 10 Introduction
      • YR10 Shannon Elizabeth Gardner
      • YR10 Vikram Masson
      • YR10 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR10 A1 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR10 Nate Maxson
      • YR10 Ed Ruzicka
      • YR10 Carol Alena Aronoff
      • YR10 Wendy Schmidt
      • YR10 Meg Freer
      • YR10 Marly Youmans
      • YR10 Diane Dickinson
      • YR10 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR10 Susan Blevins
      • YR10 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR10 McKenzie Lynn Tozan
      • YR10 Christian Mack
      • YR10 Bridget Gage-Dixon
      • YR10 A1 Edward Lee
      • YR10 Richard Luftig
      • YR10 Rachael Nazzaro
      • YR10 Jan Ball
      • YR10 Michael Keshigian
      • YR10 Anne Doran
      • YR10 George Moore
      • YR10 Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal
      • YR10 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR10 Edward Lee
      • YR10 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR10 Juliette Sebock
      • YR10 Eve Lyons
      • YR10 Tamam Kahn
      • YR10 Patrick Haas
      • YR10 Victoria Elizabeth Ruwi
      • YR10 Tim Kahl
      • YR10 Jennifer Stuart
      • YR10 Laura Stringfellow
      • YR10 Mary Anna Kruch
      • YR10 Tracee Clapper
      • YR10 Marianne Szlyk
      • YR10 Robin Wright
      • YR10 Cynthia Elder
      • YR10 Agnes Vojta
      • YR10 Karen Neuberg
      • YR10 Antoni Ooto
      • YR10 DS Maolailai
      • YR10 Cheryl Caesar
      • YR10 Alec Solomita
      • YR10 Hibah Shabkhez
    • Issue 11 >
      • Issue 11 Introduction
      • YR11 MD Marcus
      • YR11 Donna Pucciani
      • YR11 Edilson Ferreira
      • YR11 John Sweet
      • YR11 Holly Day
      • YR11 Antoni Ooto
      • YR11 Judy DeCroce
      • YR11 Mark J. Mitchell
      • YR11 Margaret King
      • YR11 Meg Freer - Poetry
      • YR11 John Grey
      • YR11 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR11 Lily Beaumont
      • YR11 Katherine Johnson
      • YR11 Gary Duehr
      • YR11 Fariel Shafee
      • YR11 Tay Greenleaf
      • YR11 J.I. Kleinberg
      • YR11 Barbara A. Meier
      • YR11 Rebecca Fullan
      • YR11 Duane Anderson
      • YR11 Jennifer Battisti
      • YR11 Dayna Patterson
      • YR11 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR11 Meg Freer - Art
      • YR11 Janina Aza Karpinska
      • YR11 Larry D. Thacker
      • YR11 Bob MacKenzie
    • Issue 12 >
      • YR12 Introduction
      • YR12 Bella Koschalk
      • YR12 Lori Levy
      • YR12 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR12 Barbara A. Meier
      • YR12 Charlotte Fong
      • YR12 Sivakami Velliangiri
      • YR12 Vivian Wagner
      • YR12 Bailey Bujnosek
      • YR12 Joan Leotta
      • YR12 Kelley White
      • YR12 Bob MacKenzie
      • YR12 Richard Luftig
      • YR12 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR12 Janette Schafer
      • YR12 John Kaprielian
      • YR12 Antoni Ooto
      • YR12 Shelby Lynn Lanaro - Poetry
      • YR12 Ann Weil
      • YR12 Ellen Dooling Reynard
      • YR12 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR12 Stephanie Hauer
      • YR12 Stephen Kingsnorth
      • YR12 Cynthia Trenshaw
      • YR12 Shobhana Kumar
      • YR12 Phoebe Backer
      • YR12 Christina Hoag
      • YR12 Shankar Ramakrishnan
      • YR12 Meg Freer
      • YR12 Bob MacKenze - Art
      • YR12 Shelby Lynn Lanaro - Art
      • YR12 Christopher Woods
      • YR12 John L. Stanizzi
    • Issue 13 >
      • YR13 Introduction
      • YR13 Donna Pucciani
      • YR13 Marie C Lecrivain
      • YR13 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR13 George R. Kramer
      • YR13 Vern Fein
      • YR13 Terri Glass
      • YR13 August Smith
      • YR13 Don Thompson
      • YR13 John Raffetto
      • YR13 JBMulligan
      • YR13 Gordon Kippola
      • YR13 Meg Smith
      • YR13 Theric Jepson
      • YR13 Melanie Cox
      • YR13 Shannon Cuthbert
      • YR13 Preeth Ganapathy
      • YR13 Laurinda Lind
      • YR13 Michael Brockley
      • YR13 Lauren Walke
      • YR13 Page Turner
      • YR13 Meg Freer
      • YR13 Cheryl Johnson
      • YR13 Dayna Patterson
      • YR13 Charles J. March III
    • Issue 14 >
      • YR14 Introduction
      • YR14 Agnes Vojta
      • YR14 Michael T. Young
      • YR14 L. Ward Abel
      • YR14 Kelly Morgan
      • YR14 DS Maolalai
      • YR14 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR14 Anneliese Kvamme
      • YR14 Claire Drucker
      • YR14 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR14 August Smith
      • YR14 George Moore
      • YR14 Jennifer Schomburg Kanke
      • YR14 Gena Schwam
      • YR14 Angele Ellis
      • YR14 Matthew Mayes
      • YR14 Jennifer Novotney
      • YR14 Cameron Morse
      • YR14 Shelby Lynn Lanaro
      • YR14 Kate Meyer-Currey
      • YR14 Mark Heathcote
      • YR14 Arlene Weiner
      • YR14 Rebecca Patrascu
      • YR14 Gabrielle Langley
      • YR14 Gary Lark
      • YR14 Michael Keshigian
      • YR14 Cathy Shang
      • YR14 Linda M. Crate
      • YR14 Mark A. Fisher
      • YR14 Jerin Anne Jacob
      • YR14 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR14 Jack D. Harvey
      • YR14 Ana Pugatch
      • YR14 Tracy Donohue
      • YR14 Roger Singer
      • YR14 Judith Ford
      • YR14 Dayna Patterson
      • YR14 Jemma Leigh Roe
      • YR14 Maxwell Suzuki
      • YR14 Meg Freer
    • Issue 15 >
      • YR15 Introduction
      • YR15 Richard Levine
      • YR15 Mark J. Mitchell
      • YR15 Rob Piazza
      • YR15 Luke Maguire Armstrong
      • YR15 Aaron Hahn
      • YR15 Morgan Bazilian
      • YR15 Christopher Clauss
      • YR15 Randel McCraw Helms
      • YR15 Judith Kelly Quaempts
      • YR15 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR15 Lea Galanter
      • YR15 Ursula O'Reilly
      • YR15 Mark Hammerschick
      • YR15 Brendan Todt
      • YR15 Greg Hill
      • YR15 Seth Ketchem
      • YR15 Nolo Segundo
      • YR15 Elizabeth McCarthy
      • YR15 Cameron Morse
      • YR15 Bruce McRae
      • YR15 Stephen Mead
      • YR15 Leslie Dianne
      • YR15 Laura Erekson
      • YR15 Jamie Ortolano
      • YR15 Robin Wright
      • YR15 Lauren Walke
      • YR15 Page Turner
      • YR15 Paola Bidinelli
      • YR15 Edward Lee
    • Issue 16 >
      • YR16 Introduction
      • YR16 Sharon Wright Mitchell
      • YR16 Mitchell Untch
      • YR16 Lynn White
      • YR16 Kate Falvey
      • YR16 Hamad Al-Rayes
      • YR16 Daniel A. Rabuzzi
      • YR16 Damon Hubbs
      • YR16 Tricia Lloyd Waller
      • YR16 Johanna Haas
      • YR16 Meg Freer
      • YR16 Ethan Blakley
      • YR16 Cameron Morse
      • YR16 Michael Keshigian
      • YR16 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR16 Marie-Elizabeth Mali
      • YR16 Allen Ashley
      • YR16 Kersten Christianson
      • YR16 Kyle Singh
      • YR16 Shari Lawrence Pfleeger
      • YR16 GTimothy Gordon
      • YR16 Ursula O'Reilly
      • YR16 Meekha Roper
      • YR16 Fabrice Poussin
      • YR16 Peycho Kanev
      • YR16 Stevenson & Auclair
      • YR16 Wendy K. Mages
      • YR16 Richard Hanus
      • YR16 Cynthia Yatchman
      • YR16 Jared Rich
      • YR16 Carl Scharwath
      • YR16 Kersten Christianson-Art
      • YR16 Meg Freer-Art
    • Issue 17 >
      • YR17 Introduction
      • YR17 Merryn Rutlege
      • YR17 Sigrun Susan Lane
      • YR17 Elizabeth McCarthy
      • YR17 Kersten Christianson
      • YR17 Alixa Brobbey
      • YR17 Sharon Lopez Mooney
      • YR17 Mary Alice Williams
      • YR17 Ann M Lawrence
      • YR17 Lauren Cox
      • YR17 Karla Linn Merrifield
      • YR17 Chloë Rain
      • YR17 Colette Tennant
      • YR17 Anne Whitehouse
      • YR17 Elizabeth Cranford Garcia
      • YR17 Holly Day
      • YR17 Darlene Young
      • YR17 Robin Wright
      • YR17 Sandra Salinas Newton
      • YR17 Nancy Machlis Rechtman
      • YR17 Dorothy Johnson-Laird
      • YR17 Adrienne Stevenson
      • YR17 Diana Raab
      • YR17 Shirley Harshenin
      • YR17 V. Bray
      • YR17 Christa Fairbrother
      • YR17 Ariel Mitchell Williams-Fiction
      • YR17 Ariel Mitchell Williams-NF
      • YR17 Liz Busby
      • YR17 Matina Vossou
      • YR17 Wendy Lou Schmidt
      • YR17 Richard Hanus
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  • About Us
Lori Levy

Japanese Eggplant on Matza
 
For Marlon, Nao, and Peggy
 
Is this the taste of diversity? On my birthday
I eat Mexican cheese, Queso Fresco, topped with Japanese
eggplant that Nao, my son's Japanese girlfriend,
makes for me with miso paste and sugar. I spread the mix
on matza left over from Passover. Salty, sweet, soft, crunchy.
I open my mouth wide, want more.
 
Want this flavor in my home. Want to sit down with diversity,
see it circling my table, blending with my Jewish/non-Jewish family,
as when Marlon, my daughter's African American friend,
joins us for Passover this year and takes a turn reading
from the Haggadah. He tells us about a music festival in Scotland
where he hid in his hotel room the first few days
to escape fingers pointed at him, hostile stares, threats
of violence—though, later, when the same people heard him sing
in a musical, they embraced him. Greeted him in the street,   
talking, bantering, caught off guard when he knocked them out
with his humor. Marlon eats matza, haroset, bitter herbs,
shares his stories, his Egypt, makes us cringe, makes us laugh. 
We place our hands on each other's shoulders,
sway side to side, sing the Passover songs.
 
Religion, race, nationality.  Divisive.  Not our identity, says Peggy,
my 98-year-old friend. Strip us all down and look inside.
That's who we are. No Passover for Peggy—but on Valentine's Day,
the only holiday she and her husband celebrate,
they write love poems to each other and read them over candlelight.
Is this who we are? Smiles across a white tablecloth, over dinner, wine.
The I who's a love poem. Sometimes a tragedy. Who thinks, feels,
suffers. Who chooses, at one moment or another, to celebrate,
as I do now: I celebrate color and spice, handed-down rituals.  What shapes
and defines us. What we bring to the table—knowing, believing,
I am not my matza, Nao is not her eggplant. I am Marlon, Marlon is me.
 


Like a Dimple

 
I know it’s delicious, but, please,
don't tell me now. Don’t even whisper
about the meat and mushrooms you're stirring in that pot.
Later—another day?  another hour?—I will swoon at your seasonings,
fall in love with garlic and wine, the wooden spoon, your hand,
but right now, this moment, I want to talk about lavender--
how it shrubs along our wall, purples and perfumes, till ahhh
overwhelms and I rush to gather all I can. I want to mash it
in my clothes, fill a tub with armloads of its fragrance and float
in water spiked with flowers—though, truthfully, I don't need a lot:
a scrawny sprig is enough to press to my nostrils,
inhaling, crazying, till my sighs turn to gold
and I feel rich as a woman fulfilled.
Lavender woos and wins every time, persisting
till I declare it the color of my life
and find myself asking, begging you, to tear off this roof
of black slate shingles. Give me mud and straw,
a hut with a roof thatched loosely enough
to leave cracks for the sky to slit through, so I can lie in bed
and eye-swallow blue. Come, look,
I’ll pull some down for you, streams, waterfalls
of blue. I will mix it with lavender,
knead it into dough with cinnamon and nutmeg.
What? I think your ears are turning purple as I speak,
and now, as you lean close, I’m sure I smell it in the crease
of your neck. Just a trace, but too dizzying to ignore,
suggestive as a dimple that hints at something bubbling
and ready to erupt. Is that your sauce, still simmering
on the flame? Suddenly I’m ravenous,
can’t wait another minute for your stew.



Not a Hollywood Movie

 
We talk about love.
Sometimes I love you more, sometimes less, he says.
I feel the same way.
Think spectrum, range, hot warm cold
as in water from a faucet, the flow increasing, decreasing,
the temperature not always perfect, but good enough.
Or we could say it’s a matter of orange juice, eggplant . . .
 
He is groggy in the morning. I wake up renewed and ready for the day.
Ready, first thing, to squeeze oranges for him.
He can’t begin, doesn’t want to begin,
without a glass of fresh juice
brought to him in bed. A simple act for me.
For him, a big ahh, quenching, invigorating.
 
I don’t have patience to fry eggplants for dinner.
He does. He stands by the stove, tender with the slices,
spicing them exactly right, turning them exactly on time.
I devour the eggplant, stuff the browned slices into pita bread
with cheese or eggs, tomatoes, hummus. With anything, everything.
 
Some moments we meld—grateful
to be living this life together.
Other times we argue like kids.
I tell him his way is mood-based, head in the sand, slow.
He says I have no priorities:
everything is important, demands attention.
Sometimes you can’t stand me, right? he asks.
We laugh. This, too, is true.
 
Still, he craves my orange juice, I could die for his eggplant.
Hunger. Thirst. We could call it love.
 
 
 

Lori Levy’s poems have appeared in Rattle, Nimrod International Journal, Paterson Literary Review, Mom Egg Review, Confrontation, and numerous other literary journals and anthologies in the U.S., the U.K., and Israel. Her work has also been published in medical humanities journals and read on BBC Radio 4. She and her family live in Los Angeles.

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