21

I have not fasted.
I have not folded my resolve and left it

on the shelf. I have swallowed it.

Next year in Jerusalem—
we will meet here in New York.

Next year in Jerusalem—
we will break bread in your house or mine.

I have collected the memory of full moons
in a tin can, and rattled them

back into orbit.

Next year in Jerusalem—
we will replace what’s been lost, or stolen.

Next year in Jerusalem—
we won’t have to ask the four questions.

We will have our answer.

Published September 10th, 2020

Jiordan Castle is the author of the 2020 chapbook All His Breakable Things. A Pushcart-nominated essayist and poet, her work has appeared in Cagibi, Hobart, New Ohio Review, Third Point Press, Verdad, Vinyl, and elsewhere online and in print anthologies. She is a resident poet and essayist for the LA-based quarterly food and culture magazine Compound Butter. In 2018, she won the inaugural Pigeon Pages essay contest and is now writer and curator of the journal’s series The Long Pause… Jiordan has an MFA in Poetry from Hunter College and currently lives in New York City with her fiancé and their dog.