On the Beach

[cremains]

Thinking today about a picture my middle stepkid drew... it depicts a "sofer cheresh" - a scribe unable to hear, in fact without ears. He is wading into the beach with a big smile, and with rather odd pants that tie his legs together with dozens of strings. I asked him why his legs were tied together, and he replied, "Because he likes it that way."

It's been almost a month since I've seen him and I miss him and his odd, slightly subversive way of thinking very much.

I wrote this about Herod Agrippas, remembering that not so long ago I read the part of the Torah he read as the king. According to the Mishnah, Agrippas cried from feelings of inadequacy when he did this, because he came from a family of bad/suspect Jewish lineage.




I read what you read
when you stood in front of them,

when your ribs unravelled
to your heart's suspicious eye,

your stomach bitter ink,
your shame the black cup,

your crown the blood gutter
where the unfaithful woman crouched,
or perhaps never crouched.

Comments

[opaqueplanet]

I can't wait 'til he's drawing Talmud comics!

[cremains]

In a fit of craziness he drew an elephant wearing like five pairs of tefillin crapping all over the place. Although he now disowns it completely, I predict that if he ever does draw comics, they're going to be so psychotic they make Talmud Comics look like bland realism...

What's up with your not posting? I must have access to your life!