To Debra Wine­garten, liv­ing as a Jew means being ​“dif­fer­ent” from every­one. No, this isn’t a pity par­ty for her­self; Wine­garten accepts her dif­fer­ence and uses her gut­sy strength and sense of humor to embrace her iden­ti­ty along with all the loss­es and loves known dur­ing the jour­ney. She is fun­ny and com­pas­sion­ate. In ​“Sec­ond Grade, Part One” she describes how she was assigned a lock­er with a Negro (the word was polit­i­cal­ly cor­rect at that time) and rather than take it as a sign of rejec­tion she decid­ed it was because they were meant to take care of each oth­er. Or the res­ig­na­tion of buy­ing the Thanks­giv­ing turkey that now, with her moth­er gone, inspires her to set a spot at the table, like cre­at­ing a space for Eli­jah. Love is sacred in these and the remain­der of this too-brief col­lec­tion. Keep writ­ing, Ms. Wine­garten; the hon­esty, humor, and poignan­cy of your poet­ry deserve to reach more readers.