By Rachel Barenblat
Our sages teach: read not "firmanent"
but "rupture." Swap two sounds
in the original Hebrew
and the vastness of the sky's expanse
becomes the primal tearing
at creation's birth, God wounded.
Our stories teach: all the waters
wanted to be in the realms above
until God, angered, crooked His finger
and the fabric of the cosmos tore.
This dissent is why Torah doesn't say
God saw that it was good.
Only the second day of existence
and God wore that ripped scrap of gabardine
which speaks mourning: "as our lives
are torn, we perform this act of keria..."
God divided the waters of birth
from all our sea-salt tears to come.
Every birth is also a death: the end
of the life that used to be.
Every separation is also a rupture.
Read not "good" but "God:" God saw
that creation was constantly changing
just like its creator, dividing and torn.
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I had a bunch of chores to do on Monday so I made them fun, stopping for a Pokemon raid at St. Elizabeth's, where I am probably the only local player who had never done a raid, and going to AC Moore for jump rings and finding that all bead strands were 4 for $10, even the ones that usually cost $5.99 each. So I made a necklace with blue glass beads and turtles while talking to Maddy about her day instead of folding the laundry, but it's all good, I can do that tomorrow.
Paul is having a colonoscopy tomorrow, meaning I have to drive him, meaning not much else is going to get done tomorrow but hey, I will still be having a better day than he will! Tonight we watched Supergirl and Elementary around the Caps' victory over the Penguins, in which I can't pretend I have much invested since I never watch hockey but I know local people who will be thrilled! Here are some more photos from Lake Whetstone yesterday, including geese, turtles, and flowers!
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