Help Me Remem­ber, Hafiz, When All I Can See Is Nir Oz

—after ​“Sacred Dance for Life”

How do I stop my heart from chok­ing on stone?

I want to smile, to lift and be lift­ed. Yes—

even to dance. But how

to untan­gle my feet, dear Hafiz? How

to unsnarl my arms so I may reach God?

Oh, Sacred Dance for Life,

you’ve come to me when I need you

most. My fin­gers scroll,

my grief swells. I am not

alone in forgetting

we were cre­at­ed for joy. Please,

oh poem, oh poet!

Tell me. How

to unsee

this once child’s sheet, tucked

neat­ly around four corners?

---

This piece was first published by the Jewish Book Council.

Diane Got­tlieb is the edi­tor of Awak­en­ings: Sto­ries of Body and Con­scious­ness (ELJ Edi­tions). Her words appear in 2023 Best Microfic­tion, Riv­er Teeth, The Flori­da Review, Huff­Post, Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Jour­nal, Smoke­Long Quar­ter­ly, and The Rum­pus, among many oth­er love­ly places. She is the win­ner of Tifer­et Journal’s 2021 Writ­ing Con­test in non­fic­tion, longlist­ed at 2023’s Wigleaf Top 50, a final­ist of The Flori­da Review’s Editor’s Prize for Cre­ative Non­fic­tion, and the Prose/​CNF Edi­tor of Emerge Lit­er­ary Jour­nal. Find her at https://​diane​got​tlieb​.com and on social media @DianeGotAuthor.