Leibe
Love in Yiddish
Esther
After the Queen of Persia
Leibe Esther
Her Jewish name
Given in the tradition of her ancestors
Called out in the synagogue at her baby naming
Randomly chosen by the rabbi
Yiddish sentimentality
Loaded on top of her American name
Her real name
The one she went by every day
Except at Sunday school
Where each kid went by their Hebrew name
Her teacher crowned her Esther
Changing her Yiddish moniker
To understandable Esther
Hebrew Esther
Biblical Esther
Savior of the ancient Jews of Persia
Forcing unwanted heroism upon her
She never saw herself as Esther
And even less as Leibe
That sounded like Libby
A musty smelling babushka
Grey haired
Plump
Sharp tongued
Thrusting the weight of the shtetl not love upon her
Then one day her aunt
An old Zionist
In whose apartment Golda Meir had once stayed
Told her she could just be Karen
A ray of sunlight in Hebrew
And the ancient queen of babushkas vanished in the brightness
©kcasady
No comments:
Post a Comment