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HYOIDE BONE KADDISH
by julia kolchinsky dasbach

My people know how to hold light

in their mouths, how to keep it safe

 

until it fades to whisper or prayer.

Now say: Amen

 

until you can tell the difference.

My people are light and bone

 

and when god opened his mouth

to say: Amen    

 

they must have leapt off his tongue,

unchosen and nameless

 

beyond any blessing and song

 

A previous version of this poem appeared in Guernica

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