What it Feels Like to be a Jew Writing About What it Feels Like to Write About Being a Jew

What it Feels Like to be a Jew 
Writing About What it Feels Like 
to Write About Being a Jew
by Rachel Kann

Like a puff of dandelion
never granted 
permission to land
take root
thrive

Like a dirty word
Like dirt
Like soil
Like earth

Like a missile
whose only wish is
to never fulfill 
its life‘s mission

Like a shelter dog 
unable to come 
toward the 
here, boy
or trust it

Like a panic attack 
waiting to happen
with no one 
to have it

Like stone 
with a hole 
through the heart 
worn in
drip by drip

Like a fire 
that would 
stop burning 
if it could 

Like a wind
that’s blown 
for so long 
that it cannot know 
its own impetus 

Like three stars
in the sky
that never 
arrive

Like millions 
of ashes 
rising 
and 
rising