she watch­es him put away dinner:

chick­en breast, pale and saltless -

he and his fam­i­ly can­not abide

fat or skin or bones -

and chal­lah and pur­ple wine.

“he is a good husband,”

she says, her eyes a bit watery,

her knuck­les the same color

as the chicken.

“he treats you like price­less art.”

yes, well -

it is a terrible

exhaust­ing

thing,

to be magritte’s horse,

use­ful parts [the head,

the suf­fi­cient hips, the spine]

on dis­play and the rest

rav­aged

by unfeel­ing trees.

This piece is inspired by The Blank Sig­na­ture by René Magritte.

This piece is a part of the Berru Poet­ry Series, which sup­ports Jew­ish poet­ry and poets on PB Dai­ly. JBC also awards the Berru Poet­ry Award in mem­o­ry of Ruth and Bernie Wein­flash as a part of the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards. Click here to see the 2019 win­ner of the prize. If you’re inter­est­ed in par­tic­i­pat­ing in the series, please check out the guide­lines here.