5 Nisan: Matzah

ODE TO MATZAH

 

Hello matzah, my old friend:

You've come to dry my mouth again... -- Hazzan Jack Kessler

Evocative as

Proust's madeleines.

Every seder I've ever known

is encapsulated in your ridges.

I love the uneven rounds

the baker makes:

that thinnest flatbread,

a savory buñuelo.

But the version of you

that I know best

is square as a pizza box,

crenellated like cardboard.

You're the hardtack of slavery

and the waybread of freedom.

Liberation, dry and dusty

as a hamsin wind.

Sprinkled with salt

slathered with horseradish

scrambled with eggs and pepper

the taste of being Jewish in spring.

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