My Brother Tells Me He Loves Me On The Day Hamas Attacks Israel

I call as soon as the news breaks, forgetting the time
difference in Israel, ignoring the Shabbat rules.

Though we rarely speak, though he studies
Talmud daily, sways to ancient rites,

And I’ve turned my back on all gods,
our braid as frayed as the long tassels

hanging from the corners of an old prayer shawl.
I should have known he would call back.

He calls  every time I work on a poem about him.
We used to hide under the blue and white

blanket during lightning strikes and Father’s explosions.
I recall our hikes in the Rockies, his grace navigating

narrow trails. The way he sobbed when his pet pigeon
died. We used to hold each other’s secrets, a history

that was ours alone. I want to ask how
he calculates the math of revenge,

the holiness of destroying innocents.
Will we ever be able to bridge this silence,

rappel the chasm of children dying in Gaza, in Israel?
For now, he is safe, his family is safe. I want

that to be enough. I tell him I love him. For the first
time in forever, he recites the words back to me.

.

Aubade For Fallen Deer

            after Mahmoud Darwish

Under the cypress tree
on the edge of morning
my little brother turns away
and I fall          dreaming
alone

I limp down a crooked path
and find a deer
fallen              
at the lake’s blue edge
legs collapsed              black hooves
crumpled
ground bloodied

Does he remember his mother
dying and trapped       caught
behind concertina wire

My brother startles me
We stumble    
flail
My brother turns his back
blue and white prayer shawl in tatters

Leaves might be green            somewhere
here                 in Israel
            here                             in Gaza
the cypress tree cracks
and a dove circles
in a sky white with ash

.

Angie Minkin is a Pushcart-prize nominated and award-winning San Francisco-based poet who stands on her head for inspiration. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Birdy Magazine, Cantos, Concho River Review, Courtship of Winds, DASH Literary Journal, El Portal Literary Journal, Lips Poetry Magazine, Loch Raven Review, The MacGuffin, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, The Opiate, Rattle, The Poeming Pigeon, Stirring: A Literary Collection, The Unbroken Journal, The Westchester Review, and several others. Her chapbook, Balm for the Living was published in 2023 by Finishing Line Press. She is a coauthor of Dreams and Blessings: Six Visionary Poets, published in 2020 by Blue Light Press. Angie is on the poetry staff at The MacGuffin. When not writing, she practices yoga, takes dance classes, and travels to Oaxaca, Mexico, whenever possible. Learn more at www.angieminkin.com.