Alan Bern
You Are What You Eat
I could have been from the Ukraine
like my grandparents who spoke Yiddish
occasionally, so we wouldn’t understand,
weekends when our parents dropped us off
for some “much needed time off.”
Shabbat dinners of boiled chicken,
chopped liver, chicken soup with kneidlach.
Peanut butter on celery while playing Casino,
with my brother and Grandfather
who always asked: today or tomorrow,
when we took too long to play our hand.
We roasted marshmallows over the gas stove.
Rode the bus to Golden Gate Park and Playland.
Grandma’s purse held hard candy
and plastic bags to cover public toilet seats.
Grandpa’s teeth in one cup on the sink,
stewed prunes in another one for morning.
Baths with only a few inches of water.
Sleeping in their twin beds, while
they slept on the cot and couch.
Grandma’s mandelbread, walnut brownies,
cream cheese sugar cookies with sprinkles
filled a belly that craved sugar
but didn’t get it often enough to satisfy
an insatiable appetite for sweets.
Never knew real deprivation
or danger like they did.
Never had to leave home
for more than a weekend.
Laura Garfinkel worked for many years as a medical social worker. During the pandemic she started to write full time. She is grateful for all the zoom classes, workshops, and readings that became available. When she isn’t writing, she is thinking about writing while swimming, walking, hiking, and biking!
Retired children’s librarian Alan Bern is the author of three books of poetry. He has awards for his poems and stories and is an exhibited/published photographer. Alan performs with dancer Lucinda Weaver as PACES: dance & poetry fit to the space and with musicians from Composing Together. Lines & Faces, his press with artist/printer Robert Woods, linesandfaces.com.