The Red Door

<p>The story starts at a Jewish funeral. </p><p><br></p><p><em>fist after fist fills with cool damp earth</em></p><p><br></p><p>It travels to Israel:</p><p><br></p><p><em>at ben-gurion airport</em></p><p><em>here she comes hauling her baggage</em></p><p><em>rendered clumsy by her burden</em></p><p><em>beneath that smooth brown skin</em></p><p><em>that halo of thick coarse hair</em></p><p><em>the plantation and the shtetl</em></p><p><em>live in blood and memory</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>her passport names her</em></p><p><em>tirzah persephone horowitz</em></p><p><em>after an aunt on her dad's side</em></p><p><em>who died so young in the camps</em></p><p><em>and her mother's favorite greek myth</em></p><p><em>but to call her tirzah is too much</em></p><p><em>like uncovering her nakedness</em></p><p><em>like speaking aloud the holy name</em></p><p><br></p><p>and the holy city of Tzfat...</p><p><br></p><p><em>i am a city of song</em></p><p><em>plucked strings of a lyre</em></p><p><em>loud brassy klezmer</em></p><p><em>throbbing techno beats</em></p><p><em>shoes clop-clopping on cobblestone</em></p><p><em>tires screeching on the asphalt river</em></p><p><em>winding round my peak</em></p><p><br></p><p>It features monsters...</p><p><br></p><p><em>terry loves monsters</em></p><p><em>loved them since her first pimples and pubes</em></p><p><em>sneaking dracula under the covers</em></p><p><em>wondering what it would be like</em></p><p><em>to feel a vampire's fangs on her neck</em></p><p><em>to taste human blood in her mouth</em></p><p><em>to transform into wolf or bat or mist</em></p><p><em>but dracula always dies</em></p><p><em>staked and beheaded by good christian men</em></p><p><em>because magic and mystery must not survive</em></p><p><br></p><p>And it ends...</p><p>No. That would be telling.</p>