Eating Pork – Rosemarie Krausz

My great-grandmother was deathly ill and would not eat—
in Czechoslovakia in the nineteenth century.
Her family asked their rabbi what to do.
He said, Give her whatever dish she wants.

She asked for pork—forbidden
for Jews.  But the rabbi approved.
Rules are waived in questions of life and death.

So they fed her a pork stew,
rich with onions, apples, potatoes, and spices.

She recovered.

………….They never learned the source
of her craving.  Had she ever eaten it in secret?
Perhaps she only inhaled the aroma
from a Christian’s kitchen window and could not
forget it.  Perhaps she needed to break the law
to regain her strength.  Perhaps she was
the iconoclast from whom I am descended.

***

If you’re going to sin, said Jacob Frank,
sin with the sensuality of fear—
be as wicked as you can
until your pleasure makes you pure.

 

Rosemarie Krausz is a retired Canadian psychoanalyst with a Ph.D. in psychology.  She holds an MFA in poetry from Drew University.  A child of two Holocaust survivors, she has not yet published her chapbook, “i, child of survivors” and full collection, “Black Milk”.  She has published a poem, Post Shoah Glosa, online at the Poetry Super Highway, in their 20th Annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Poetry Issue, and her poem, Black Milk, in the 22nd Annual Yom HaShoah Poetry Issue.

4 thoughts on “Eating Pork – Rosemarie Krausz

  1. Shai Ben-Shalom

    A clever piece! An entire story in few stanzas, capturing the many ways of being a Jew, and examining the boundaries of religious beliefs. It is as much about the author as it is about her great-grandmother. Beautiful, and inspiring!

    Shai

    Reply
  2. Suzy Konigsberg

    To Rosemarie,

    So few words, so many levels of meaning. Wonderful. Thank you.

    I look forward to reading chapbook {what IS that?!} of “I, child of survivors” poems.

    I heard you read three of them for your MFA. They were so beautifully crafted & evocative.

    Cheers, Suzy

    Reply
    1. Rosemarie Krausz

      Thanks so much, Suzy. A chapbook is a short collection of poems (about 12-30 poems) that are thematically linked. I am enjoying your kind words.

      Reply

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