Steve Deutsch

My Sister’s Memoir

I bought the last copy
out of the display window
at the bookshop on the corner,
where your face had smiled at me
every time I passed
as if promising a conversation.

But our last conversation
was long ago—long
before the whole world
knew your name.
Such different paths
through the forest.

You had made a life,
rich and rewarding,
and I had made a muddle.
I sat on a bench off 5th
enjoying a rare April warmth
and began to read.

I wish I could tell you
what I expected—
to be the star of the early
chapters, I suppose. Called out
and praised—that’s the way it was—
wasn’t it?

But you lumped me
in with all the Toms, Dicks
and Harrys of our youth
in what was a very short chapter
without a single anecdote
of the hundreds of adventures

we shared.
If I look up
and crane my neck
I can just make out
your penthouse apartment.
Amazing views of both rivers

and all of NYC I have
to imagine, since I’ve never
been. I placed your book,
picture up, in a handy wire trash can,
and scratched around for subway fare
to take the N line back to Brooklyn.

Latkes

I hand grate
the potatoes and onions
though my friends
have switched to food processors.
My grandma always said
that without a bit of blood
the latkes hadn’t much taste.

Aside for a special dish or two,
grandma was no cook—
having more interest in professional
wrestling and divining the daily numbers.
Given a deck of cards, she could separate
you from your money faster
than you could say matzoh meal.

Latkes are best when piping hot.
My grandmother an impresario—
playing the sizzle-snap of the pan.
We would gather round the stove
like wolves that had found a rabbit,
and scarf the latkes down—
burnt fingers be damned.

Hunger pangs gone,
we retired to the dinner table.
A mound of latkes, sour cream,
and apple sauce
shared the spotlight
with grandma’s other masterpiece—
brisket, queen of comfort food.

 

Steve Deutsch is poetry editor of Centered Magazine and the first poet in residence at the Bellefonte Art Museum. Steve was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He has published six volumes of poetry. Brooklyn was awarded the Sinclair Poetry Prize from Evening Street Press. A new full length, Seven Mountains, was just published.